Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground

by T.R. Simon Narrated by Channie Waites

Overview

A 2019 Edgar Award Finalist for Best Juvenile work and one of YALSA's 2019 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults

A powerful fictionalized account of Zora Neale Hurston's childhood adventures explores the idea of collective memory and the lingering effects of slavery.

“History ain't in a book, especially when it comes to folks like us. History is in the lives we lived and the stories we tell each other about those lives.”

When Zora Neale Hurston and her best friend, Carrie Brown, discover that the town mute can speak after all, they think they've uncovered a big secret. But Mr. Polk's silence is just one piece of a larger puzzle that stretches back half a century to the tragic story of an enslaved girl named Lucia. As Zora's curiosity leads a reluctant Carrie deeper into the mystery, the story unfolds through alternating narratives. Lucia's struggle for freedom resonates through the years, threatening the future of America's first incorporated black township - the hometown of author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). In a riveting coming-of-age tale, award-winning author T. R. Simon champions the strength of a people to stand up for justice.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Ruth Davis Konigsberg

…beautifully written…The connection between slave times and Zora and Carrie's world unravels slowly and with well-crafted suspense and a horrifying surprise twist.

From the Publisher

Raw depictions of slavery and its aftermath provide important context as the Eatonville community's resilience is tested in the face of injustice. The voices of Zora, Carrie, Lucia, and their families and friends make for powerful, unflinching storytelling, worthy to bear the name of a writer Alice Walker called a "genius" of African-American literature. An extraordinary, richly imagined coming-of-age story about a young Zora Neale Hurston, the long, cruel reach of slavery, and the power of community.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Simon keeps the plot moving briskly and sustains suspense even as she folds in truly profound, timely, and important themes; and one of the things Zora and Carrie have learned by book’s end is that “history wasn’t something you read in a book. It was everything your life stood on.”
—The Horn Book (starred review)

This stunning sequel to Zora and Me is a fictionalized mystery based on Zora Neale Hurston's childhood and includes a biography of Hurston as well as a timeline of her life. T.R. Simon's writing does elegant justice to the grownup Hurston's genius as a writer as well as to the character she apparently was as a child.
—Shelf Awareness for Readers (starred review)

A sequel to Zora & Me (2010), which Simon coauthored with Victoria Bond, this story pays tribute to writer and anthropologist Hurston and weaves the basics of her life (she grew up in Eatonville, set many of her stories there, and, as an anthropologist, studied hoodoo practices in the Caribbean and American South) into a plausible fiction...this makes a satisfying read for historical fiction buffs.
—Booklist

In this compelling sequel to Zora and Me (both stories fictionalize the childhood of literary great Zora Neale Hurston), two best friends unearth a town’s secret...Lucia’s story exerts the stronger pull in much of the novel, until the two worlds collide powerfully to highlight the “unfinished business of slavery” and reveal why the town is cursed ground. The result is a thought-provoking look at racially motivated violence and the enduring wounds of slavery.
—Publishers Weekly

Zora’s mischievous recklessness is a perfect foil for Carrie’s more circumspect nature, leading the girls into trouble that is more exciting than dangerous; Hurston herself might well approve of this imaginative riff on her childhood.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This is a powerful story that will stick with readers. The novel is followed by a brief biography and timeline of Zora Neale Hurston’s career as an accomplished author. This stirring sequel to Zora and Me (Candlewick 2010) certainly stands on its own.
—School Library Connection

Goose bumps, tears, smiles, and sighs: these were the rewards I took away from this exquisite read. I feel confident that my aunt Zora, the ‘Zora of the Cosmos,’ is quite delighted with the literary enchantment of T. R. Simon.
—Lucy Hurston, niece of Zora Neale Hurston and author of Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston

A stunning work of imagination and a deeply necessary read. Young readers will not only learn about our history of slavery and Jim Crow; they will also ask themselves where they stand in American history. Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground will give rise to rich conversations about the positions we take in the unfinished business of our Civil War.
—Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times best-selling author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2018-07-16
A curse, the legacy of slavery, and a fight for justice collide in this fictionalized account of author Zora Neale Hurston's childhood adventures, sequel to Simon's Zora and Me, co-written with Victoria Bond (2010).Twelve-year-old Zora Neale Hurston is as brave and adventurous as her best friend, Carrie Brown, is cautious. The year is 1903, and the girls live in Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated all-black town in the U.S. Late one night, during an escapade, the girls discover their friend Mr. Polk injured outside his cabin. Mr. Polk is known to be mute, but to the girls' surprise, he speaks—though not in English—to Old Lady Bronson, the town conjure woman, when she arrives to tend to his wounds. By night's end, Zora has made a pact with the conjure woman, and she and Carrie find themselves embroiled in a half-century-old mystery involving an enslaved girl named Lucia. Through alternating chapters, narrated by Carrie in 1903 and Lucia in 1855, Lucia's story and its connection to Zora and Carrie's world come to light. Raw depictions of slavery and its aftermath provide important context as the Eatonville community's resilience is tested in the face of injustice. The voices of Zora, Carrie, Lucia, and their families and friends make for powerful, unflinching storytelling, worthy to bear the name of a writer Alice Walker called a "genius" of African-American literature.An extraordinary, richly imagined coming-of-age story about a young Zora Neale Hurston, the long, cruel reach of slavery, and the power of community. (biographical note, timeline) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172697364
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/11/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

PROLOGUE  
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground"
by .
Copyright © 2018 T.R. Simon.
Excerpted by permission of Candlewick Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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