cover image Minnie Saves the Day

Minnie Saves the Day

Melodye Benson Rosales. Little Brown and Company, $12.7 (96pp) ISBN 978-0-316-75605-1

From the illustrator of the American Girls' Addy series comes this Depression-era tale, the first in The Adventures of Minnie series set in Chicago's celebrated African-American community of Bronzeville. Taking a cue from the format and design of the Addy books, this volume sets the text on a cream-colored background, introduces the Merriweathers with cameo portraits and ends with a fascinating appendix, ""Chocolate-Covered Memories,"" which goes into further detail about the Great Migration and the significance of Bronzeville. The titular Minnie, a rag doll made for Hester Merriweather by her Grandmama Alfie, moves easily between the world of ""really-for-real folks"" and an enchanted existence populated by Hester's other toys. Rosales's painterly full-page and spot illustrations effectively delineate the two landscapes, and the sepia tones of her portraits radiate the warmth of beloved family snapshots. Minnie here comes to the rescue by rallying the toys and secretly baking a butter pound cake for Hester's harried mother on the day of a special dinner. But the adventure takes a back seat to Rosales's moving evocation of the African-American experience 70 years ago. In one particularly poignant passage, she describes Hester's reaction to her grandmother's gift: ""Hester kept staring at the doll's face, gently touching its hair. She had never seen a colored doll before."" The author skillfully weaves in prevailing attitudes of the day from a safe distance via the haughty porcelain Prima Donna doll, envious of Minnie's new status as ""favorite."" A glimpse of history with reverberations aplenty for modern readers. Ages 6-9. (Apr.)