Toning the Sweep
In a family composed of three strong, independent women (daughter, mother, grandmother), it's often what's left unsaid among them that resonates the loudest for the youngest family member, 14-year-old Emmie. Now that Grandmother Ola is dying with cancer, Emmie feels compelled to hear the truth behind their silences. She knows that something awful happened long ago that no one ever mentions. What was it? In a spare, eloquent first novel, Angela Johnson shows that silence can dull the pain of tragedy but can never really cure it. Emmie discovers that one must ring the dead into heaven with great noise, by elegizing, keening or even by striking a plow with a hammer, a folk ritual known as "toning the sweep." ©1993 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 12 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
African Americans
Death and Dying
Families
Grandmothers
Illness and Disease
Mothers
Diversity subject:
Black/African
Physical Disability/Condition
Publisher:
Orchard
Publish Year: 1993
Pages: 103
ISBN: 0531054764
CCBC Location: Fiction, Johnson