Susan Marcus Bends the Rules

by Jane Cutler

Overview

You wouldn't even know there was a war on, thinks Susan Marcus as she surveys her new neighborhood in Clayton, Missouri. There are no air raid wardens, no blackout curtains. It's so different from her old home in New York City: no tall apartment buildings, no bustling city streets. Susan can barely understand people, their accents are so thick, and of course eveyone in Clayton is a St. Louis Cardinals fan and sworn enemy of Susan's beloved New York Yankees. Worst of all, for the first time in her life, ten-year-old Susan encounters prejudice -- against New Yorkers, Jews, blacks, and the Japanese. She must be circumspect about her friendship with Loretta (the daughter of the black janitor), for Jim Crow laws still exist in 1943 Missouri. Outraged, Susan decides to strike a blow against them. She's not going to break the rules exactly; she's just going to bend them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823431441
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	01/31/2014
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
Lexile:	880L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jane Cutler has written novels and picture books for children, including Spaceman, which was nominated for the Mark Twain Award and the William Allen White Children's Book Award, and The Cello of Mr. O, which won the Zena Sutherland Prize, the 2000 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, and the New Mexico Land of Enchantment Book Award. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2014
Gr 4–6—In 1943, the summer before she begins fifth grade, Susan Marcus's family moves from New York City to St. Louis. At first, the avid Yankee fan is apprehensive about relocating to Cardinals country and being able to understand the accents of her new neighbors. She is also surprised to find that in Missouri her family won't need to put up blackout curtains or volunteer for the air-raid watch. Susan encounters prejudice toward Jews, Japanese, African Americans, and even New Yorkers for the first time. Disgusted with Jim Crow laws that keep her from being able to go to the swimming pool or movie theater with her African American friend Loretta, Susan cooks up a plan to push the limits of the laws. The novel splendidly captures the place and time, from the heat and humidity (and lack of air conditioning), to childhood pastimes like roller skating, playing jacks, and drinking Kool Aid. Facts about the era are smoothly integrated into the story. However, due to the lengthy descriptions, the plot is slow to get moving, and most of the action takes place in the latter half of the novel. Although the author uses the terminology of the time to describe race (Japanese are referred to as Japs, Africans Americans as colored), the story is a gentler read than Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Dial, 1976). Children will cheer for Susan's courage in defying the injustice in her world.—Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

School Library Journal

2014-03-12
The summer before fifth grade brings changes for a Bronx girl. Susan and her parents are leaving the Bronx for Clayton, Mo. It's the middle of World War II, and Susan's father, not in the armed forces, has changed jobs. She worries about being a Yankees fan in St. Louis Cardinals territory and leaving close friends and family behind, but she hasn't counted on the troubling difference in accents and relations with adults from North to South. She makes two new friends very quickly; one has an annoying little sister, and one is a "Negro kid." Playing with the two of them leads to bigger thoughts. Perhaps they should integrate the pool. No, Jim Crow laws are too strong, she is told. Well then, thinks Susan, they "could ride on the bus together, and we would not be breaking any law." Although public transportation here is integrated, they raise plenty of eyebrows and turn many heads. Part of this civil disobedience involves eating in a Chinese restaurant that has been vandalized with anti-Japanese slogans. Cutler writes her story with her focus squarely on issues. There is insufficient motivation for Susan to have this level of social conscience, and actions take precedence over character development. In addition, her family is nominally Jewish, so there are some requisite but gratuitous-feeling anti-Semitic remarks. World War II, segregation and prejudice in a book that feels decades old in its approach. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews