Source of book: Audiobook from the library, but I also own this.
One of the joys of parenthood is discovering kid books that you somehow missed as a kid. A quick look through the indexes of this blog will reveal that the kids and I discovered a lot of interesting books together over the years.
Alas, with most of my kids adults these days, we don’t have nearly as many kid books on our audiobook list as we used to, and they mostly have their own lives. But it was a lot of fun while it lasted, and I at least have so many great memories.
While in a lot of cases, the kids found the books before I did, there are a number that I found on my own, often through the lists of past Newbery Award winners.
The discovery of Virginia Hamilton came when the Library of America released a hardback collection of her best-known books. We are now up to three of her books read (or listened to), and I really do have to say that it is a shame that I didn’t discover these books when I was young. The House of Dias Drear in particular is a great haunted house tale that I suspect I would have read multiple times as a young boy.
One of the things I have enjoyed about modern children’s literature by black authors is the way that the stories don’t have to be about civil rights or racism, but are often just about ordinary life and people, with the realities of white supremacy in America more as a background than as the focus. Not that there is anything wrong with the other kind of book, which the kids and I have also read, but that there is a power in simply normalizing the everyday existence of children and families and communities that just happen to be black.
But Virginia Hamilton was doing this back in the 1960s and 70s and 80s.
The House of Dias Drear is actually the first book of hers I have read that has slavery as a key plot point. But the book is a lot more than that. It is a great ghost story. Well, a ghost story the same way that Scooby Doo is about ghosts. It is also about a family, about the experience of being a young boy who is caught between trying to be brave and grown up and independent and still being a kid at heart.
The protagonist is Thomas Small, age 13, who experiences a huge life change. His family packs up from their home in North Carolina, and moves to Ohio. His father is a history professor who has just been offered a job at a local university, and also the chance to rent the historic mansion of Dias Drear, an abolitionist who used the place as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Mr. Small also is in possession of a great deal of information about the house and its history, and he suspects that somewhere there might be a collection of historical artifacts that will be of use to the historical society.
Oh, and the house has a bit of a reputation for being haunted. And no one who has lived there has made it past a few months before leaving, telling strange tales about their experiences.
Thomas starts off unhappy about the move (particularly about leaving his grandmother behind - she refuses to move with the rest of the family). He is both fascinated by the existence of secret passageways and tunnels and scared of a potential haunting.
And then there is the caretaker, Mr. Pluto, so nicknamed because of his reputation as being (perhaps) the lord of the underworld. I mean, he’s a blacksmith and lives in a cave, so why not? He is getting old, however, and Mr. Small assures the family that he is a good man, if a bit gruff.
Sure enough, though, once the Smalls move in, strange things start happening.
Metal triangles (which we eventually learn are signs left to guide those fleeing slavery) appear stuck on door frames during the night. The neighboring family, the Darrows, seem hostile. The visit to church is strangely unfriendly.
And Thomas has a series of encounters with Mr. Pluto, in which he sometimes seems like a crippled old man, and other times like a supernaturally strong and fast apparition.
He also meets Mac Darrow, a kid his age, who seems more friendly than the other Darrows. And also Pesty, a young girl who has become Pluto’s protege, and who seems able to charm a horse like a professional rider.
With rumors of a treasure, a lurid story of how Dias Drear was finally killed by enslaver thugs, and the story of an enslaved person who escaped the disaster, there are the makings of quite a thrilling story.
And did I mention secret passageways, and tunnels, and hiding places, all with historic connection to the Underground Railroad?
Oh yes.
I really enjoyed this book. It has the right combination of excitement, daring do, realistic characters, and a great look inside Thomas’ head as he tries to navigate change and fear and growing up. It’s a really excellent read.
I can’t say any more without spoiling all the fun surprises in the book, though.
I will add, however, that this is a great example of how Hamilton highlights different African American experiences in her book. Each of the three I have read have had different slices of life presented. The working class Appalachian rural culture, where Irish and black families live side by side. The farming families. And, in this book, the educated middle class. Hamilton seems intent on showing that there are many ways to be in the world, and that the stereotype of black poverty and all the racist assumptions that go with that, are myths.
The Smalls are a family that any of us can identify with. The exhaustion of caring for twin toddlers. The stress of moving and finding community in a new place, where people have different ideas of what “friendliness” looks like. Parents who love their children yet have to find the balance between freedom and protection. They are good people, and they rise to the occasion in this book.
I think that it is high time that Virginia Hamilton be recognized as one of the best writers of her era. Her books have aged quite well, and seem every bit as relevant today.
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The other Virginia Hamilton books:
I also recommend checking out my list of black authors. There are so many amazing books, including some of the best fiction being written today.
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