this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
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Based on the cover, my kid brought me home a book from the "keep forever" section of their school library (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by toynbee@lemmy.world to c/parenting@lemmy.world
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My kid can't really read yet, but they brought me home a book. This exchange occurred in the first ten pages:

"Papa, that man is as black as ashes, isn't he?"
Papa laughed. "Dogs and horses come in different colors, don't they?"
"But he's not a horse, is he, Papa?"
"No, he's not a horse." Papa patted her on the head. "But colored folks aren't much different."

I WONDER WHY THIS BOOK WAS FREE IN THE LIBRARY.

(I'm not blaming my kid, they chose it just based on the cover.)

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[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Dark Water Rising is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Marian Hale is an American author known for her historical novels for young adult

Hale's second novel, Dark Water Rising (2006), is set in 1900 and follows seventeen-year-old Seth during the devastating Galveston hurricane, blending fiction with historical events.

The novel takes place only a few decades after the Civil War and Reconstruction, so racist oppression is a significant social factor in the story. The reader sees the patterns and structures of racism through the experiences of Josiah and Ezra. To build this theme, Hale exposes Seth to double standards, social restrictions, and interpersonal tensions. Ultimately, as the racial difference both collapses and is upheld in the aftermath of the storm, Hale reveals the social segregation to be a construct—or, as Mr. Vedder puts it, “ceremony.”

This could be an AI sloppy summary, but , maybe it's not so bad? IDK.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

This is different from the blurb on the back of the book, but not by much. I guess the version on the back just doesn't mention the racism and I didn't know much about the timeframe. (That part is certainly on me.)

Back of the book "Dark Water Rising*