The Color of the Soul

There were many different sides to the Civil War. There were people on all sides of the fighting. These people were not just faces in old photographs or names in the family tree. They were people; they lived lives like we all do. They lived in a time when life was torn apart by war and they either had to give up and die or scratch and claw out a living to survive. They had to pick sides against their neighbors and family. They all had to fight to survive the Civil War. And after the war ended, these people had to put their lives back together piece by piece and slowly mend the bonds of a broken family. The Color of the Soul by Tracey Bateman is the story of these people - people who refused to die and kept on living when their world was falling apart.

Andy has lived his whole life resenting where he came from and the parents who sent him away when he was only six years old. Though being sent away to Chicago has given Andy opportunities that a black man otherwise wouldn't get in 1948, he still wants to know who his family was and why he was sent away. But when Andy gets the chance to go back to Georgia, the trip is much more dangerous than he thought it would be. Miz Penbrook wants to write her memories before she dies; there are things she has kept hidden for far too long. Stories from her past and the Old South that need to see the light of day. Truths about her own life and about Andy's that she finally has to admit. 

This was a very interesting book! Tracey Bateman has presented a whopper of a book that asks a very pressing question; "What is the color of you soul?" While I think in some parts of the book the story gets a little too complicated and parts of it move too fast to be understandable, the story in general was very intriguing. Children under 14 should not read this book though! There are some very intense chapters involving the Klu Klux Klan and their warped brand of justice, as well as mentions to sex and rape. These topics should be approached delicately with kids under 14, and this book is not exactly subtle. But in the long run this is a very good book with an important message that I think everyone should take time to read. This book dares to ask, "Does your outer skin color matter? Or does the color of your soul?"

*****

RJ