Black Star, written by Kwame Alexander. Little, Brown and Company, Hachette. 2024. $24.99 ages 10 and up

"But I don’t really enjoy
the flute
as much as she does,
so after I finish
dusting and mopping
and Willie Green shows up
hollering all loud
through our screen door,

holding
the old broomstick
we use for a bat,|
even though he sometimes
gets on my nerves,
I ask her if I can go outside
because the only thing
I love doing
more than listening
to Nana Kofi’s stories
is playing ball." 
 

This is the second book in The Door of No Return trilogy. In the first book we met Nana Kofi from the Asante Kingdom. The year was 1860, and Kwame Alexader tells the poignant story of Nana and his cousin being taken by slave traders from Africa to America, and their survival after the slave ship crashes and hurls them into the ocean. 

In this book, readers meet Charlene (Charley) Cuffey, Nana's granddaughter. She is 12 years old, and wants to know everything about her Nana's life before leaving his homeland. It is not a story Nana shares easily. The family is now living in Virginia in the early years of the 1920s. Charley is an aspiring pitcher. Although she is talented and wants to eventually play in the Negro League, the prevailing times offer little hope for her future as a ball player. She is, after all, a Black girl facing segregation in her own small hometown. 

Listening to her Nana Kofi's stories, and learning his native language engages her attention and her longing to return with Nana to his homeland when the time comes that he can go home again. The Black Star Line has promised a return for anyone wanting to make the voyage. In the meantime, she hones her skills playing ball with her two best friends, Cool Willie Green and Socks. It is evident through her first-person narration that Charley has some difficulty understanding her place in history. Nana does his best to help her come to grips with what she can and cannot do. 

Kwame Alexander fills the book's page with family, church picnics, and baseball. His skill at poetic storytelling is always compelling, while also exploring the injustice faced by his ancestors. As happened in the first book, this one also ends dramatically, with an impulsive decision that leads to discrimination, fear, great pain, and flight. 

 

 "Too much badness wrapped up in all the goodness that could be."

Readers will hope to hear more of Charley's story in the promised third book. An author's note is compelling and worthy of attention.