The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural (Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner)

I like the short story format because it is easy to pick up and read throughout the day. Some stories, like the Legen of Pin Oak, had enough detail for me to feel as though I understood the purpose of the story. However, other stories like the 11:59 felt like details were omitted in order to keep

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with the short story format. It was very frustrating reading about some of the ways African Americans were treated and I felt some anger as I read about that treatment.

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Intermediate or Middle
Genre: Folktale- This was a folktale because all of these stories were stories told to Patricia Mckissack from her grandpa when she was little.
Plot: The plot of one story was man vs. nature. He was born with a curse that he could see the future, but the future was not always

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beautiful and bright. He would see horrible things sometimes.

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The 1993 Newbery Honor book blends tales of the supernatural with the terror of racial prejudice. In a series of short stories, the author teaches history in a simple way that does not preach, but rather, brings home a message of the need for tolerance.

The Dark-Thirty by Patricia C.
For this novel Patricia C. McKissack put together series of storytelling that can usually be told around bonfires. This is not just any story telling its stories that are suspense and can possibly bring fear into a reader eyes. This book contains ten stories that

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shows racism, haunting, and vengeance that is appropriate to tell around camp fires. The author not only put series of stories in one book but, brought the setting back to the era of slavery. These stories are not written from the author’s ideas. These are chilling stories from the original stories rooted in African-American history. This novel also was awarded with the Coretta Scott King award in 1993.

These are collection of ghost stories that used to be told through storytelling. The title to start off with is “The Dark Thirty” meaning half hour before sunset. It is very interesting titles because that title is believe to be the time when ghost exist. This book tells ghost stories from slavery era. The unique thing about this book for example the story “We Organized” is written very well. The narrating of the story is read from a slave perspective. The way this story is written like an uneducated slave with slang and stuttering. However, it is a cool way to tell a story a readers mind can really picture a former slave voice. These stories are really something to read around Dark-Thirty.

Paris Edwards

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Excellent stories, the style reminds me a bit of the old Twilight Zone stories where ordinary people experience extraordinary occurrences. This book is an excellent way to introduce young readers to the horrors of the pre-Civil Rights era. The illustrations were a delightful addition to the scary

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stories.

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A collection of spooky, supernatural stories from the oral traditions of African Americans in the South, retold for a middle grade audience. The stories are great, as folklore always is, but the writing is weak in spots: there are some bits of awkward phrasing, and some of the stories are placed in

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narratives that are unnecessary and clunky. But if you're into folklore, the tales themselves are worth enduring the faults here.

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