Sixteen-year-old Hannie ’ s part of the narrative takes station in 1875, ten years after the end of the Civil War. She ’ mho working as a share sharecropper now, on the plantation where she was enslaved, with a handful of other former slaves. Her nights are haunted by dreams of her missing family. Her mother and eight siblings were sold off towards the end of the war, scattered across Louisiana and Texas. She hasn ’ metric ton seen any of them in ten years .
She abruptly finds herself on the road ( long narrative ), with the two adolescent daughters of the plantation owner – one ( Lavinia ) from his wife and the early ( Juneau Jane ) from his schoolmarm. The plantation owner has disappeared somewhere in Texas and Juneau Jane wants to find her beloved father and ensure her inheritance is secure .
During the travel, they take shelter in a church that has a wall full of newspaper clippings on it. They ’ ra from the “ Lost Friends ” column of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, a black southerly newspaper. The column ’ mho function is to help former slaves find their family members. For fifty cents, a person could publish the details of their lost family members and how to get a hold of the “ seeker ” if anyone had information.
At a detail in the travel when Hannie had an opportunity to return to Louisiana, she decides to continue on into Texas in an feat to locate syndicate members. But the quest had expanded beyond precisely Hannie ’ s family. Along the way, when people found out what she and Juneau Jane were doing, they would ask the two girls to write down their family members names and besides ask about them during their respective stops. frankincense, the Book of Lost Friends .
Switching gears to 1980s Louisiana, Benny has her foremost teach job at a poor high school in a small town.. The kids are indifferent to the traditional course of study she starts off teaching. But then she has a guest speaker, a endow storyteller that talks about the history of the township, and that captures the students ’ attention. They embark on a inquiry project designed to learn more about their ancestors .
Benny is besides living in a rental family on property that was share of the Gossett plantation where Hannie once lived. She befriends the grove house ’ randomness owner, Nathan Gossett, and together they discover secrets about the past that the township ’ s amphetamine crust doesn ’ thymine want revealed .
This book is therefore good. The storytelling is fantastic. There very was a “ Lost Friends ” column, which I found both bewitching and heartbreaking. It ’ randomness one of those details about the post-Civil War time period that most people don ’ triiodothyronine know about. The newspaper was sent to black churches, where the pastor would read the column to the congregation. The writer referred to it as a identical early version of social media. Genius. here ’ mho more information about a plan to preserve the column ’ s history. And here ’ s a link to a gore discussion with museum staff and writer Lisa Wingate that provides more information about their collaboration .
The writer, Lisa Wingate, found out about the “ Lost Friends ” column when she was contacted by person who admired her previous best seller, Before We Were Yours ( a farseeing time house physician of my “ to be read ” list ). The source was planted and grew to be The Book of Lost Friends .
The history could have taken many directions and I love where the generator took it. Hannie ’ s narrative illustrates the trauma of slavery and being separated from your family. But it is besides a exultant report because Hannie is brave and smart and perseveres in the boldness of harsh conditions and acts of ferocity. And I like that the attempt to locate lost friends gained momentum and expanded to include helping people they met along their travel. This made it even bigger and more mighty .
The more modern storyline involving Benny shows that, 110 years later, descendants of Hannie and others from her clock are still struggling with poverty and prejudice. But it besides shows the importance of knowing and preserving history, particularly the history of your family and where you came from, even if the truth is uncomfortable. I like that this is the concept that made Benny ’ south uninterested students into budding genealogists, even if just temporarily .
As you can see, I truly liked The Book of Lost Friends and sky-high recommend it.
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