Up Molasses Mountain ANNOTATION
When union members arrive to organize their West Virginia coal mining town, fourteen-year-old Clarence Henderson, shunned for his cleft lip, and his neighbor Elizabeth Braxton narrate the changes in their own lives and in the lives of everyone in their community.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"I couldn’t imagine a life where I couldn’t come up on the hill to get away.”
In 1953, Clay, West Virginia, is a mining town where families have known each other for generations, and the biggest excitement of the year is when the circus comes to town. But that spring, a strike divides Clay and causes a tragic accident that changes 15-year-old Elizabeth’s life in an instant.
The accident sends Elizabeth to the hills in search of comfort. There she befriends Clarence, a high school outcast who has a rare and special animal hidden in the woods. As they care for his pet, they create a fragile refuge from the violence that is building all around them, and within their own families.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
"Overcoming heartache is sort of like climbing a mountain of molasses," 15-year-old Elizabeth's grandmother tells her. "Sometimes you feel stuck there, with the darkness surrounding you, tugging at your feet and pulling you down. But other times, things are sweet and you can see your way to go on." There's heartache aplenty in this solidly crafted first novel, set in 1953 in a small West Virginia mining town polarized by a strike. Two alternating narrators tell the story of their emerging and mutually empowering friendship: Elizabeth, whose father and brother are on opposite sides of the union issue ("Our dinner table was just like the town: It had divided like the Red Sea"); and her classmate Clarence, an outcast because of his harelip. Much of the plot seems overfreighted in the second half of the book, there's a train accident in which Elizabeth's boyfriend is killed, a shooting, an explosion at the mine and an unlikely episode with a runaway circus monkey. Even so, the story unfolds with quiet strength, drawing in readers with its strong characterizations, vivid setting and realistic dialogue. Ages 10-up. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
VOYA - Kristen Moreland, Teen Reviewer
This book held my interest throughout because of the characters with their unique personalities and views of the miners' strike. The writing style is good, but sometimes you can't tell which point of view the section is written from until you read a few pages. This book is more enjoyable than other books about this period because it is informational and has a good story line. 2002, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 176p,
KLIATT - Jessica Swaim
A 1956 mining dispute in Clay, West Virginia not only divides the community but pits father against son. In the Braxton home, 15-year-old Elizabeth's brother Sterling defies their father by attending union meetings. No sooner does Elizabeth fall in love with the daring, popular Johnny Beasley than Johnny is killed in a tragic accident with a tie-in to the mining strike. "You'll get through this," Grandma tells her. "Overcoming heartache is sort of like climbing a mountain of molasses. Sometimes you feel stuck there, with the darkness surrounding you, tugging at your feet and pulling you down. But other times, things are sweet and you can see your way to go on." Go on Elizabeth does, turning for solace to her friend and classmate Clarence, an outcast with a harelip. Perhaps the weakest links in this otherwise solid narrative are the sections told from Clarence's point of view, involving his secret harboring of an escaped circus monkey. Yet Baker manages to relate even the monkey's fate to union politics. Timeless themes of family conflict, friendship, and first love, combined with the innocence of another era, make this a winning choice for girls from 12 to 20. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, Random House, Dell Laurel-Leaf, 209p., Ages 12 to 18.
School Library Journal
Gr 7-Up Elizabeth, 15, has always been thoughtfully inclusive toward shunned, cleft-palated Clarence, finding him to be much more intelligent than his hampered speech suggests. Then she becomes distracted by a romance with Johnny, a popular football player. It is 1953, and tension builds in the small West Virginia coal town as the UMW attempts to unionize the mine. When a strike is attempted, mock ambushes and a fake lynching cause the company to bulldoze the union camp, which leads to a more serious escalation of violence. This in turn brings about Johnny's death when the train engineer is too frightened to break for the teen's car. Feeling sad and guilty about both quarreling with Johnny and not having been truly in love with him, Elizabeth is distressed to see a serious break between her father and brother over the strike. Further disheartened by the accidental shooting of a monkey that Clarence has taken secret pride in training, she finds some consolation in her grandmother's folk wisdom. Then the mine siren brings all other activities to a stop as it wails out the news of a collapse. While aspects of this novel work well, the alternating voices of Elizabeth and Clarence are not well differentiated and it's often difficult to tell which character is speaking. Full of twists, the plot is fast paced and exciting, and the layers of personal and working relationships are interestingly depicted. -Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Two narrators weave a picture of the tragic consequences when union men attempt to organize the coalmine in Clay, West Virginia, in 1953. Clarence, 14, is shunned and taunted because of his harelip, and 15-year-old Elizabeth wants to be a writer and loves the mountains where her family lives. The peaceful, hard-working, small community is torn apart; families, friends, and neighbors are split into two sides against each other. The explosive situation of scare tactics and threats erupts as a coal-hauling train accidentally kills Elizabeth's boyfriend when his truck stalls on the railroad tracks. His death sparks violence and murderous retaliation when a mineworker is deliberately killed. Elizabeth overcomes her feelings of bereavement by befriending Clarence and keeping his secret of a circus monkey that he's found in the woods. Some of the tragic outcomes will be obvious to the reader, but the strength lies in the vivid picture of time and place as seen through the main characters' eyes. The two voices are distinguished with different typefaces though some segues could be tighter and Elizabeth's voice is the stronger. The wedge between Elizabeth's father and older brother delineates the issues on human levels. As Grandma tells Elizabeth: "Overcoming heartache is like climbing a mountain of molasses. Sometimes you feel stuck there with the darkness tugging at your feet and pulling you down. But other times, things are sweet and you can see your way to go on." In an admirable first novel, Baker has painted an intimate scene whose drama contributes to an understanding of then, there, and now. (Fiction. 10-14)
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