The Sittin’ Up by Shelia P. Moses (review)

Moses (author of The Legend of Buddy Bush, BCCB 4/04, etc.) returns to rural North Carolina in 1940 to tell the story of the passing of the last former slave in a small community, the 100-year-old Mr. Bro. Wiley. Bean is on the cusp of manhood, so this is the first time he has been allowed to participate in a sittin’ up, and his best friend Pole is invited to be a flower girl for the funeral, circumstances that make them proud even in the midst of their grief over a man who was like a grandfather to them. The first half of the story becomes attenuated with its extended focus on spreading the news of Mr. Bro. Wiley’s death and making preparations, but then the action picks up with a vengeance at the actual sittin’ up, with a fistfight, a flood that forces everyone, including a 400-pound woman and the coffin, onto the roof, and the untimely birth of Bean’s baby brother in a boat as they struggle to escape the flood waters. Nearly all of the expected Southern stereotypes are present and accounted for here: the unfailingly wise and benevolent former slave, the longsuffering sharecroppers, the fancy stranger who sells liquor to the men and invokes the ire of the women, the outspoken woman and her sassy daughter, the dignified teacher, the well-to-do undertaker, the well-fed preacher, and the haughty, mean-spirited white people. Despite some mild humor in the character depictions, contemporary children will likely find Bean and Pole as bland and apple-cheeked as Dick and Jane in their unflagging desire to be obedient to the strict and arbitrary rules of their parents and to live up to the noble expectations set for them by their elders. The real value here is the evocation of the community and the carefully detailed description of funeral rites and customs from the time period; the explanations for the time-honored rituals for honoring the dead and the young people’s centrality in the group-uniting mourning may garner the interest of young readers more accustomed to being distanced from old age and death.