The Mighty Miss Malone

Although THE WATSON'S GO TO BIRMINGHAM remains my favorite Christopher Paul Curtis novel, this one is right up there. He takes me into a world I know nothing about. This time of the 1930's Michigan black neighborhood as seen through the eyes of 12 year old Deza Malone. Her mom cleans houses. Her

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father is unemployed. If you want kids to empathize with children from history this is a book to have them read. It is terrible not to have money for clothes, have teeth with cavities that smell, eat cereal with worms in it. And it only gets worse. Dad leaves to find a job. Mom, Deza and her brother Jimmy are homeless and end up in a hobos camp. Yet, Deza never loses hope. She tells about her family's woes powerfully but with hope and exuberance at times. Her father disappears, her brother goes to sing in a speak-easy. But the family remains strong and there's powerful hope at the end of the book. The author's afterword about the Joe Louis and his boxing nemesis, the German Schmeling is a must read. I shared it with a fifth grade class and they clapped. I had no idea that Schmeling and Louis remained friends for life, or how important those boxing matches were to Americans and Germans.

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Three and half stars? Four? I liked this book, but I was always aware it was a STORY as opposed to something that could have happened to a real person.

I did love the details about daily life during the Depression, and enjoyed the Gary and Flint settings. The camp was awesome, um, in a way that

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you're probably not supposed to think that camps of homeless people are awesome. It's just that all those little details of a kid making a home from scratch are downright irresistible (one of my favorite books as a kid was one of those Scholastic paperbacks, about a Mexican family that made a home in an old boxcar, and I LOVED it).

The aspect that worked the least for me was the seriousness of the father's situation -- it kept getting worse and worse, and I don't know if it didn't feel believable to start with, or it wore me down to the point that I didn't feel the impact as much, but my impression was that his situation was exactly as bad as the plot needed him to be at any particular moment.

I'm still thinking upon some of Deza's more impulsive moments. The book doesn't show a lot of consequences for them. She punched a grown man at a night club? You'd think there would be some more follow up to this, either this has ramifications for her brother, or it's so silly to think of a 12 year old girl trying to punch a club bouncer that the story becomes hilarious. Instead, it just ... happens. I guess this is a Christopher Paul Curtis thing -- if Deza isn't aware of it, or thinking about it, the reader doesn't get to see it either.

I've never read The Quest of the Silver Fleece and I think I should.

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This book made me cry. A story of a girl with so much potential, but her family's circumstances are her obstacles in life.

Growing up in Gary, IN in 1936, spunky and optimistic Deza Malone remains focused on her straight-A+ status and goal of becoming a teacher one day. None-the-less, the Great Depression is taking its toll on her family. They get by on her mother's housing-keeping wages, but Deza's teeth are rotting

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and her brother Jimmie hasn't grown in three years. Deza's father heads out to Flint, MI to find work, and when the Malones wait for months without hearing from him, they set out after him. Their journey takes them through the not-uncommon scenes of the times-- train jumping, Hoovervilles, speakeasies, poorhouses. Though rich in detail, the involved plot gets muddled at times along the way (we hear of a dentist at the beginning who will fix Deza's teeth, but nothing comes of that until the very end of the book). Curtis has fun with language, using Deza's love of her thesaurus and alliterative father to explore a wide vocabulary. A wonderful jumping off point for further classroom lessons on the poverty and other realities of the Great Depression, as well as the importance of family. Recommended for grades 4-8.

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This is an intriguing story and an enjoyable read. The author has incredible voice!

The Mighty Miss Malone is set in Gary, Indiana during the 1930s during the Great Depression. Deza is part of the Malone family; she is very bright and does well at school. Her father is in an accident when he goes fishing on Lake Michigan and no one knows where he is. Her mother found him in a

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hospital and brought him home, but he was pretty beaten up and weak. The family is excited about a boxing match between a black man and a white man. The black man loses and the same night Deza's father decides to leave to go find work in Flint. When Mrs. Malone loses her job too, she tells Deza and Jimmie that they are moving to Flint to find their father. After riding a train to just outside Flint, the family stops and stays at the camp with other homeless people. They only meant to stay for a night, but end up staying for a while because they cannopt find Mr. Malone. Mrs. Malone and Jimmie both find jobs and Deza is enrolled in school, which is horrible compared to her last school. Police come to clear out the camp; Jimmie leaves to become a musician. Deza and Mrs. Malone find a small place to rent in Flint. Jimmie earns a lot of money as a singer and secretly uses it to pay for rent on a house back in Gary for his mother and sister. Mrs. Malone and Deza check at a homeless shelter to see if Mr. Malone is there. They finally found him, after months of searching by Mrs. Malone and they all go to the new house to be a family.

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"We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful" is the motto of Deza Malone's family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved

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father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie's beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation of the Depression and prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss Malone.

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I really liked this book. Deza is a good female character. I think my nitpicks with this book have to do with the fact that I am an adult reading a children's book so that affects my perspective somewhat. I would have loved Deza as a child.

I liked this, but I've seen it on the short list for the Newbery and I don't think it's quite that good. I did like the dental aspect though. That was new and different.

Cute historical fiction. I learned something and was entertained by Deza's verbosity -- wonderful.

This is a great book to discuss the historical time period of the Great Depression, and how people struggled to support their families. It also a controversial topic through history that every child should learn about. Race is such a touchy subject to address, so I think this book is great way for

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children to see the differences but also similarities in each of us. This book also attacks the issues of poverty, and the extent of what people will do for money or survival. These issues are all very hard to address in the classroom, but this book will help get the ball rolling.

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I would use this story for older elementary students. This is a great book to teach students about the history. This would teach the students about the Great Depression and how times had changed for the families during this time.

I liked this, but I've seen it on the short list for the Newbery and I don't think it's quite that good. I did like the dental aspect though. That was new and different.

Deza Malone's biggest concern is getting straight A+'s on her schoolwork until her father is in a boating accident and she learns that their family will have to move to Flint, Michigan in the hopes that he can find work. Finding work is not an easy proposition for an African American man in 1936,

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the throes of the Great Depression. As Deza finds out, the best-laid plans oft go awry. But Deza won't let anything dampen her spark.

The book started off slowly, but it picked up when the family left Gary. I'm not entirely convinced about the female voice - I found Deza obnoxious instead of funny for the first half of the book, but as she started to grow up a little and there was more action in the plot, the voice worked better for me.

Mr. Curtis makes a great point in the second half of the book about kids seeing themselves in the stories they read. I know just the young lady I want to hand this book to.

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I loved the mighty Miss Malone and wished I could continue to follow her story after the book ended. She is truly a wonderful, funny, inspiring character. The audio version of this book is outstanding as well.

RGG: Not as wonderful as Bud, Not Buddy or The Watsons . . . The plot has a few holes and the characters besides Deza are less developed. But a strong female character and a desperate portrayal of the impact of the Great Depression on families even if Jimmie's role as savior seems very far fetched.

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Deza's mistaken use of vocabulary, the speech with a lisp, and the historical references make for a somewhat harder read. Reading Interest: 10-12.

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I did not like this book about Miss Malone only for the fact that it was boring. Learning about her family was very interesting, but I have read some better Biographies. There are no illustrations so it could be difficult for a child to understand the plot.

The message of the story is to learn

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about how some survived during the Great Depression era like Deza and her family did.

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Narrated by Bahni Turpin. Like many families during the Great Depression, Deza's family is having its struggles, especially after her father is injured in a boating accident. Roscoe Malone is forced to leave Gary, Indiana, to find work in Flint, Michigan. Deza and her mother and brother journey to

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Flint to find him, along the way living in a homeless camp for several months. Turpin gives a pert and sympathetic voice to Mighty Deza Malone, a smart little girl who just wants her family reunited. The James-Cagney-like voice Turpin gives Deza's conniving "second brain" is especially amusing.

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In Bud, Not Buddy, Bud met a precocious girl at a camp next to a railroad track near Flint, Michigan. That girl was Deza Malone and this is her story.

It’s the Great Depression, and times are hard in Gary, Indiana, where the Malone family lives. Mr Malone has a hard time finding work; the few jobs

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available don’t go to black men like him. He makes the difficult decision to leave for Flint, Michigan, where he’s heard there may be a job. But when the family doesn’t hear from him for weeks, Mrs Malone decides to take Deza and her older brother Jimmie, and go looking for him.

I just love Deza Malone! She’s smart, courageous, resilient and big-hearted. The family’s journey is perilous at times, and Mrs Malone’s worry is well-founded. But they also have moments of joy, and meet with kindness and compassion from total strangers. There are many twists and turns in their journey, but they continue on despite any setbacks, certain that their destination is “a place called Wonderful” and that together, they will make it there.

Middle-grade readers will learn some history and how people dealt with homelessness, hunger and racism in that era. Curtis also give a strong message on the power of family unity, of working together for a common goal, and of never giving up your dreams.

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I am so sorry that it took me years to discover this book! If you enjoy reading historical fiction for kids, The Mighty Miss Malone will not disappoint. It has everything that exceptional children's literature should have: an engaging narrator, humor, and characters you care about, along with

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universal truths that will linger in your mind long after you close the book. Set in Indiana and Michigan during the Great Depression, young Deza relates the series of events that cause the Malone family to lose their home, their jobs, and finally, their ability to stay together. Throughout it all, Deza's irrepressible optimism in the face of poverty and racism keeps the tone light, and readers will be inspired by the Malones enduring love for each other.

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What an enjoyable read! This is story of Deza Malone, an intelligent, vivacious, African American 12-year-old girl, trying to survive the Great Depression with her family. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot too :)

Deza Malone (deh'-zah, don't call her dee'-zah!) is a tough, and extremely smart black girl growing up in Gary, Ind., during the Great Depression. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1, which is over half the book, introduces Deza and her family, her proud, serious mother, Peg; her loving,

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silly father, Raymond; and her tough but stunted older brother, Jimmy, who sings like an angel. We learn about their life in Indiana, the hardships they face because of the depression, and their strength as a family. At the end of Part 1, Raymond has left Gary to find work in Flint, Mich., and the remaining family is evicted from their home. They decide to go to Flint to hunt for their husband and father. In Part II, Deza, Jimmy and Peg are living in a Hooverville camp outside Flint. This takes up most of the remainder of the novel. Part III gets the family back on their feet again in most ways, but felt rushed. I would have liked the final section to spend a little longer getting where it was headed.
Deza is a delightful (if somewhat boastful) protagonist, and you will root for her all the way.

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I give this four ****, although I gave Bud, Not Buddy four-and-a-half even though I much prefer "strong girl" stories. I think my problem with The Mighty Miss Malone is that, although I easily fell in love with Deza Malone, I found her just a little bit too adorable to be true. Still, I strongly

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recommend it.

And note that, although Deza Malone appeared as a character in Bud, Not Buddy, she was only a "one-page character" in the earlier book and the link between the books is thin practically to the point of nonexistence. I say that in a good sense, meaning that you can read either or both of these books, as you choose; and if you want to read them both, you can read them in either order.

And for academic use, note that the book contains a reference to the first Louis-Schmeling fight. Also for academic use, be aware that Deza is an extremely bright child who particularly loves to write, and she sometimes uses her dictionary to find "big" words but not always successfully. There's a bit of cuteness when on several occasions Deza confuses "geological" with "geographical" and would say something to the effect that "that city's twenty-five miles away geologically." It's a good teaching opportunity to show children the difference between these two words, and generally to caution them against excessive precocity where dictionaries are concerned, but teachers might want to be sure their kids don't run around telling everyone that Philadelphia's a hundred miles away from New York geologically!

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The Mighty Miss Malone is one of those books you know the end is coming but don't want the story to end. I felt like I knew each of the Malones. Jimmie, 15 years old, is a good kid, not great kid, but that boy can sing. Deza is 12 and the smartest kid in and loves her teacher. A sad set of

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circumstances force Mother and Deza to move to Flint, Michigan. Here she is in school with black and white students. All the teachers are white and they will not give a grade better than a C to a black child, no matter how good the work is. Roscoe Malone, the dad, is desperately trying to find a job. It is after all The Great Depression of the 1930's and no jobs for Black men. Mother works for the bank presidents family the Carsdale's, cleaning their home. Mrs. Carsdale says that she is a pretty good worker and never caught her stealing, but "you know how those people are."
This is a page turner from start to finish as you follow the plights and perils of a poverty stricken Black Family,of the depression...eviction, riding the rails, predujice, no money for doctor's care so Desza soaks cotton in camphor to place in her cavities to ease the pain a bit, living in shanty towns, family separation...
Christopher Paul Curtis has done extensive research with this work of historical fiction. Be sure to read the afterward about the Joe Louis and Max Smellinbg fight that took place in Yankee Stadium.

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