- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: AmazonEncore (16 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0982555059
- ISBN-13: 978-0982555057
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,604,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Wish After Midnight
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"Although there is plenty of history embedded in the novel, A Wish After Midnight is written with a lyrical grace that many authors of what passes for adult literature would envy." (Paula L. Woods for The Defenders Online)
Genna is a fifteen-year-old girl who wants out of her tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back in time. Facing the perilous realities of Civil War–era Brooklyn, Genna must use all her wits to survive. In the tradition of Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, A Wish After Midnight is the affecting and inspiring tale of a fearless young woman’s fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.
About the Author
Zetta Elliott was born and raised outside of Toronto, Canada but has lived and taught in Brooklyn for over 10 years. An educator and a writer, Elliott has published numerous works of poetry, plays, essays, and children's books, including Bird, her critically acclaimed picture book which was released in 2008. Elliott also originally released A Wish after Midnight in 2008, in response to a need for more books that spoke to the varied roots and realities of children in urban schools. She is currently working on a sequel to A Wish after Midnight.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are few speculative fiction works that have a person of color as their central character, possibly the result of the fact that the great majority of sf writers are white. This is a very nice exception to this general picture.
Genna is a modern-day 15 year old living in the slums of New York. She's intelligent, ambitious, determined to go to college and leave the slums behind, and works hard at making that plan come true. But she's also shy, has typical teenage concerns about her looks and whether she can attract a boy who can understand her, and has a rather dysfunctional family whom she feels obligated to help. She also has real trouble understanding those people for whom `black' is synonymous with `trash', and chafes under the unwritten rules of our society that say that blacks can go this far, and no further, and are not admissible to the upper ranks of society.
All this is presented in the early sections of this book, and forms a very good character study, along with a well-painted picture of just what life is really like in the ghetto. But then she is magically transported back to the New York of 1863, where she is taken for a runaway slave, and where every aspect of this society places her not just at the bottom of the heap, but buried under a mountain of class and permissible action restrictions, where racism is not a dirty word, but the accepted norm of the day, except for a very few who are fighting to change that status quo. Genna's adaptation to this new world is adroitly done, though I did feel in spots that she, due to her modern-day perspective and attitudes, would have been more prone to make unacceptable mistakes in actions and words that would have netted her even more punishment than what is actually shown. But the world of this time is very nicely shown, more between the lines than by actual exposition, as we only see it from Genna's viewpoint. It's a world that will seem quite alien to people of today, and provides both a great perspective of just how much has changed in terms of race relations and just how much attitudes of prejudice still color our present world.
The ending is, perhaps, a little weak, but does complete the picture of Genna's maturation from girl to woman, and the story as a whole is both an excellent history lesson and a wakeup call to those who think that the issue of racism in America is no longer a major concern.
Given the scenario above, this book invites comparison to Octavia Butler's Kindred, which has a very similar plot and theme. Put side-by-side, this book stacks up quite well, though I would have to give the edge to Kindred, if only because of its more adult viewpoint. But both provide an excellent look at this period of American history, both have strong relevance to the world of today, and both should probably be read by all.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Genna is a modern-day 15 year old living in the slums of New York. She's intelligent, ambitious, determined to go to college and leave the slums behind, and works hard at making that plan come true. But she's also shy, has typical teenage concerns about her looks and whether she can attract a boy who can understand her, and has a rather dysfunctional family whom she feels obligated to help. She also has real trouble understanding those people for whom `black' is synonymous with `trash', and chafes under the unwritten rules of our society that say that blacks can go this far, and no further, and are not admissible to the upper ranks of society.
All this is presented in the early sections of this book, and forms a very good character study, along with a well-painted picture of just what life is really like in the ghetto. But then she is magically transported back to the New York of 1863, where she is taken for a runaway slave, and where every aspect of this society places her not just at the bottom of the heap, but buried under a mountain of class and permissible action restrictions, where racism is not a dirty word, but the accepted norm of the day, except for a very few who are fighting to change that status quo. Genna's adaptation to this new world is adroitly done, though I did feel in spots that she, due to her modern-day perspective and attitudes, would have been more prone to make unacceptable mistakes in actions and words that would have netted her even more punishment than what is actually shown. But the world of this time is very nicely shown, more between the lines than by actual exposition, as we only see it from Genna's viewpoint. It's a world that will seem quite alien to people of today, and provides both a great perspective of just how much has changed in terms of race relations and just how much attitudes of prejudice still color our present world.
The ending is, perhaps, a little weak, but does complete the picture of Genna's maturation from girl to woman, and the story as a whole is both an excellent history lesson and a wakeup call to those who think that the issue of racism in America is no longer a major concern.
Given the scenario above, this book invites comparison to Octavia Butler's Kindred, which has a very similar plot and theme. Put side-by-side, this book stacks up quite well, though I would have to give the edge to Kindred, if only because of its more adult viewpoint. But both provide an excellent look at this period of American history, both have strong relevance to the world of today, and both should probably be read by all.
---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Zetta Elliott's tale of an American teenager who time-travels back to 19th century Brooklyn, when black people were still slaves, is emotionally affecting and educational. The author sets out the difficulties in Genna's two lives quite well, and the different pressures black people found themselves under then and now. I do find Genna's motivations and feelings to be sometimes oblique, but her observations of the world around her are sharp and I learnt a lot about that period in history, which appeared to be well researched.
The story itself has weaknesses in that the sci-fi aspect is not very well done. There is merely a vague explanation of how the time travel happens, and no mention of whether Genna has gone into someone else's body, or whether she has just materialised out of thin air in her own body- and modern clothes?- in 1863. Also she seems to accept her time-travel without much confusion or question. I would have liked there to have been some focus on whether she can change history by her actions, whether she can use her modern knowledge to help her, and so on. Really the story might as well not have had any time travel aspect at all, because it was used as a deus ex machina and nothing more. Perhaps the author felt that her target audience would not want to read a book about the American civil war without giving them a modern cipher to act as an entry point.
There were quite a lot of typos which did distract me. I wouldn't normally mention it when reviewing a proof copy, but this book has already been published once, so they really should have been ironed out by this point. But overall I would recommend this book for teenagers because it is touching and informative, and raises a lot of issues (you can tell it was written by a teacher to facilitate classroom discussion). It's not a masterpiece but it's readable and fulfils a useful purpose.
The story itself has weaknesses in that the sci-fi aspect is not very well done. There is merely a vague explanation of how the time travel happens, and no mention of whether Genna has gone into someone else's body, or whether she has just materialised out of thin air in her own body- and modern clothes?- in 1863. Also she seems to accept her time-travel without much confusion or question. I would have liked there to have been some focus on whether she can change history by her actions, whether she can use her modern knowledge to help her, and so on. Really the story might as well not have had any time travel aspect at all, because it was used as a deus ex machina and nothing more. Perhaps the author felt that her target audience would not want to read a book about the American civil war without giving them a modern cipher to act as an entry point.
There were quite a lot of typos which did distract me. I wouldn't normally mention it when reviewing a proof copy, but this book has already been published once, so they really should have been ironed out by this point. But overall I would recommend this book for teenagers because it is touching and informative, and raises a lot of issues (you can tell it was written by a teacher to facilitate classroom discussion). It's not a masterpiece but it's readable and fulfils a useful purpose.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I'm a white, middle class, English male and have very little knowledge of American, poor and black communities, so this novel came as an eye-opener for me.
The autor writes convincingly on her subject and the characters are well drawn.
The main character, Jenna, is somehow transported back in time from present day Brooklyn to the year 1863, just after slavery was abolished. Nonetheless, racism is rife and she finds life difficult in the extreme.
Yes, the plot's far-fetched, but as a device to compare the way black people are treated today with a century and a half ago it works well. It's a thought provoking novel, and I recommend it highly.
The autor writes convincingly on her subject and the characters are well drawn.
The main character, Jenna, is somehow transported back in time from present day Brooklyn to the year 1863, just after slavery was abolished. Nonetheless, racism is rife and she finds life difficult in the extreme.
Yes, the plot's far-fetched, but as a device to compare the way black people are treated today with a century and a half ago it works well. It's a thought provoking novel, and I recommend it highly.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A wish whenever....
I found this a sad read. Despite its being an historical interpretation of black and white problems too much of it rings true today. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Jane Baker
Seeks to educate but isn't a good fiction book
Aimed squarely at teenagers this book tells the story of Genna, a poor teenage black girl who lives in Brooklyn with her mum and siblings. Read more
Published 12 months ago by JennyD
Interesting comparison of life for a Black American 100 years apart
It was an interesting an informative read. I certainly thought a lot about what it would have been like to be a Black American in New York about the time of the abolition of... Read more
Published 12 months ago by JoMaynard
bringing history alive for teenagers
This book stars Genna, who is a fairly ordinary teenager. A bit too clever to be popular with her classmates; a bit shy with boys; family problems at home - there are plenty of... Read more
Published 13 months ago by H. Ashford
Thoroughly enjoyable.
I read this book over the recent four day Easter holiday. I chose it solely because the main character's not so common name was the same as my daughter's, because of this I thought... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs. D. Carr
Courtesy of Teens Read Too
All Genna Colon wants is to find a way out of her current life. She doesn't want to win the lotto or meet a vampire. No, all Genna wants is to leave Brooklyn. Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2010 by TeensReadToo
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