Never Forgotten (review)

In this mythically flavored sequence of narrative free-verse poems, the blacksmith Dinga raises his baby son on his own after the death of his wife, aided by the Mother Elements Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind. Dinga ignores the distant drums telling of oncoming war and treachery in Mali, focusing on teaching Musafa the ways of the forge. One day, however, Musafa fails to return from the bush, and Dinga sends the elements to find his son. Earth reports that Musafa is "bound to other captives" and "force-marched toward the Big Water"; then Fire confesses herself unable to bring him back from the ships traveling across the sea; Water tells of the terrible journey and the auction block that awaited Musafa in the Caribbean. Finally, Wind manages to cross as a hurricane and offers a breath of hope in her report of Musafa, now Moses, who works the forge in Charleston in the tradition of his father and who's promised freedom in his future. McKissack gives her legend-making genuine emotional momentum as well as scope, making her grieving father an effective point of contact. The elements aren't overplayed, and they prove a genuinely useful storytelling device as well as a dramatic concept. The verse has an incantatory flavor, with touches of folkloric structure, that will make this a strong contender for use in reading aloud, recitation, or readers' theater. The Dillons' watercolor and acrylic illustrations here employ a more iconically stylized technique than their past delicate intricacy, with smooth thick lines that recall woodblocks and even stained glass. The art neatly differentiates mundane reality, with its black outlines, from the appearance of the elements in their dusty, pale hues and self-colored borders. Stories of the middle passage rarely focus on the pain of those left behind, and this is a creative yet poignant treatment of that grief. An author's note explains her inspirations in putting the story together.