Just South of Home by Karen Strong
Format/source: ARC/ALA Midwinter
Published: 7 May 2019
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Middle grade speculative fiction
#OwnVoices: Black girl living in southern USA
★★★★
Twelve-year-old Sarah is finally in charge. At last, she can spend her summer months reading her favorite science books and bossing around her younger brother, Ellis, instead of being worked to the bone by their overly strict grandmother, Mrs. Greene. But when their cousin, Janie arrives for a visit, Sarah’s plans are completely squashed. Janie has a knack for getting into trouble and asks Sarah to take her to Creek Church: a landmark of their small town that she heard was haunted. It’s also off-limits. Janie’s sticky fingers lead Sarah, Ellis and his best friend, Jasper, to uncover a deep-seated part of the town’s past. With a bit of luck, this foursome will heal the place they call home and the people within it they call family.
Description via Goodreads
Review
The last middle grade title I reviewed features Black kids in a small town and a speculative fiction plot; I called it “a fun summer read” (review of The Last Last-Day-of-Summer). Those descriptors also apply to Just South of Home, but these two books are quite different from each. Sarah’s meant to supervise her younger brother and big city cousin over the summer when they find themselves tangled up in a haunting connected to the town’s past. More historical mystery than scary story, this book uses haints (a Southern term for restless ghosts) as a way to explore the past’s relationship with the present.
haints
The haints in Just South of Home are mostly non-communicative. They are an occasional presence, usually spooky and sometimes scary. While they haven’t done any harm yet, old Mrs. Whitney warns Sarah and co. that if the haints can’t find peace, they may become evil spirits. The haints function primarily as a way to address the town’s history. They are spirits of people killed at a time when the Ku Klux Klan dominated the town. The narrative is framed around remembering and honouring the past rather than trying to forget or ignore it.
friends
A secondary plot that’s just as significant as the one above focuses on evolving friendships. At the start of the novel, Sarah frets because she hasn’t heard from her best friend Jovita since Jovita but not Sarah received an invitation to a popular mean girl’s birthday. Jovita, the mean girls, Sarah, and Janie run into each other a few times over the course of the novel. Sarah learns that she can be good friends with Janie, and begins to recognize that maybe Jovita isn’t a great friend. Sarah doesn’t completely reconcile her relationship with Jovita, which I appreciated for its realism.
miscellaneous
Sarah is a huge astronomy lover. Her knowledge of astronomy and her willingness to research it helps her deal with the haints.
I would have liked a bit more about how/why the haints were woken up. I didn’t think of it until after I finished the book (was it just Janie taking the locket?), but I don’t think it was fully addressed. The conclusion is pretty abrupt.
Writing this review has made me think I should create a ranking from least to most scary of the spooky/ghostly middle grade books I’ve read….
The Bottom Line:
Karen Strong makes a strong debut in Just South of Home, a unique entry into the field of ghostly middle grade fiction for the way it addresses a small town’s racist history.
Further Information:
Thank you for your review – I hadn’t heard of this one! But for other spooky books – have you read Hoodoo by Ronald L. Smith? The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste? or the Lockwood & Co. books?
I’m happy to add it to your radar 🙂 I have read Hoodoo but not the other two – they are on my TBR!