The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had
By:Kristin Levine
Book Reveiw
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had
In the award winning historical fiction novel The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine, thirteen year old Dit (Harry Otis Sims) must face the struggles of having a colored best friend (Emma) in order to survive in a segregated town. The new postmaster (mailman) arrives and to everyone’s surprise the new family is colored. I knew that this book was going to be one to remember when I read the first page. I love this book because it has many adventures and lessons to learn from it. “This is the poignant story of a remarkable friendship and the perils of a small-town justice”.
Dit and Emma are “the unlikeliest of friends”. Emma is well educated and reads books for fun. While Dit goes fishing, plays outside, plays baseball, and climbs dirt mounds. Emma came from Boston and is very pristine while Dit has grown up in the small town of Moundville, Alabama on a farm with ten brothers and sisters. Emma has many nice dresses and shoes while Dit gets hand me downs and picks new shoes out of a big barrel. In 1917 colored people were discriminated against because of their skin color. Slavery was abolished in 1865 but segregation came into play and that is what Dit and Emma are facing in this book. The author held my interest very well because she always had a situation they were getting themselves into. The major theme of this novel is to not judge other people based on their looks and in this case their skin color. This is reveled because in the town of Moundville, Alabama many people discriminate the colored people that live there. This wonderful novel throws you for many loops and this makes this historical fiction novel standout from the rest.
Levine did an amazing job writing this novel and portrayed the historical piece very well. The author conveyed historical setting very well because she gave many examples of the town in that time period. For example she included the “general store” which was actually in Moundville. A picture was taken of the general store in 1936. The most enjoyable part of this book is that even though it was written in 2009 the book still sounds like it was written in that time period. The thing I admire about the author is all of the action that Levine includes, in this book there is always something going on. This book doesn’t miss a beat. Nothing in this book bothered me other than when the characters made a bad dissension which was good because Levine really got me hooked to this book.
The theme of The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had is clearly communicated as Dit learns to not judge people by the outside but instead the inside. I would give this wonderful story 5 out of 5 stars because it is a well written novel that makes you feel all kinds of emotions. I would recommend this book to everyone who enjoys adventure and a little love at the same time.
Historical Accuracy
Short Informative Peice
Short Narritive Peice
Dear Diary,
Today was the biggest let down of my life. Let me start from this morning. I woke to the excitement in my brothers and sisters faces. Then I remembered today was the day that the new postmaster came. I didn’t really care that we were getting a new postmaster the thing that I was excited about was that this postmaster had a son and he was my age. I quick got up and brushed my hair and teeth then went to the kitchen for breakfast. The smell of fresh eggs and slightly burnt toast caught my attention. I waited anxiously all day for the night train to arrive. It was now about 30 minutes before the train was supposed to arrive. I sat in a rocking chair on in front of Mrs.Pooley’s store wrapping my twine into a new baseball. Then I turned my head and saw the flicker of the trains’ headlight I got up and ran across the street to the train depot. The train bellowed with white smoke as it came to a screeching halt. The train door opened and Mr. Walker stepped into the doorway and Mrs. Walker followed. Then I saw a colored girl she looked to be about my age. She wore a dress with a ribbon in her hair. She held a small suitcase which I assumed held more dresses. I am upset that she is a girl but not only a girl she is so girly.
-Dit