Zora and Me: The Cursed Ground

Gr 5–8—Two years have passed since their last adventure in Zora and Me (2010), but the fictionalized Zora Neale Hurston and her best friend Carrie Brown are as curious as ever about the goings-on in their town of Eatonville, FL, the first all-black incorporated town in the United States. When their mute friend and neighbor, Mr. Polk, is the victim of a seemingly senseless attack and speaks to the town's hoodoo lady, Old Lady Bronson, the friends use their skills and town connections to get to the bottom of the mystery at hand, uncovering a curse that dates back to the time when slavery was legal in the United States. And slavery, to the surprise of Carrie and Zora, wasn't really that long ago. The story of a city separated by 48 years and a war—1903 Eatonville and 1855 Westin, as Eatonville was formerly known—is told in alternating chapters. Simon offers keen insight into how the past affects the present, no matter how many years between them.