Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed

Willie Bea Mills comes from a large, close-knit family, with her aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins all around her. As the story begins on Oct. 30, 1938, I won’t be spoiling anything if I note that the title refers to Orson Welles’ infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.

But, in essence, although the broadcast plays a part, it isn’t the essence of this good-natured novel from the Newbery Award-winning author Virginia Hamilton. Instead, a glimpse into the lives of middle-class African-Americans in rural Ohio in the waning days of the Great Depression proves the real pleasure in reading this charming novel. While so many novels center on the abject poverty on the scale of Bud, Not Buddy and The Grapes of Wrath, I was surprised at show more what life was like for the middle class: Even the Mills family doesn’t have an indoor bathroom, although they have a water pump at their kitchen sink, and store-bought costumes for Halloween is beyond their father’s pocketbook. Race relations in rural Ohio in 1938 seem more advanced than today’s.

It’s my first Hamilton novel, but certainly not my last.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review. show less

It is almost Halloween in 1938 and Willie Bea is twelve years old and all the children in her extended family are looking forward to "Halloween begging". This a youngster's story about family and things that can go wrong and things that can be made right. Willie Bea's voice was in my ear while I was reading this book. This would be a great audio book for children.