When Winter Robeson Came
Los Angeles, 1965. Eden Coal is a young teenage African American girl who loves to play the piano and create her own compositions. She can’t wait for her cousin, Winter Robeson, to visit from Mississippi. Winter is distracted from the beach, museums, and fun places Eden and her family take him because he is trying to find out what happened to his father. Mr. Robeson moved to the Watts area of Los Angeles ten years ago and then disappeared. Watts isn’t far from the Coals’ home, and Eden is excited to help solve the mystery. They check out the Watts Towers, find the house where Winter’s father used to live, and get some tips from a neighbor. When the 1965 Watts Rebellion breaks out, Eden worries about a friend in the Watts area and is shocked that police are patrolling her neighborhood too.
Eden and Winter are unique and interesting characters, the mystery of his father creates good suspense, and the historical event is vividly brought to life through Eden’s narration. This book is written in free-verse poems that don’t (to me) feel like poetry; the chapters are short, and line breaks occur after most sentences. There is a lot of dialogue, but the dialogue is in italics and has few dialogue tags, making it difficult to tell who is talking. Eden matches the daily events of her life to musical ideas, listing the appropriate terms: rallentando or poco a poco. Unfortunately, these terms are not italicized as one would expect. This is an excellent story hidden beneath the book’s awkward, non-standard formatting.
