The Sittin' Up

Threatening kids with "whuppings" is common, although they never come to pass. One man dies of old age, another man dies in a flood, and stories tell of multiple people drowning in a river, but these events appear mostly as memories with more emotional resonance than detailed description. Characters discuss the horrific conditions of slavery but without disturbing details. Two men get into a fight; one shows signs of a black eye.

A woman is pregnant, and a young character remarks on how pregnancy's never discussed with children. Characters discuss men "running around" with multiple women; a new woman in town scandalously wears red dresses while keeping company with men. Realizing that he may like his childhood friend in a different way, a young boy hopes to someday take her to a dance and marry her.

Most of the book's language reflects the time of the story. Some of it's hateful, as when discussing the "whites only" signs in the town's stores and an incident where people are called the "N" word, but it accurately reflects the period. A woman is called a sinner for wearing red, drinking, and selling alcohol to men.

Tobacco farming and smoking are shown, accurately reflecting the time. A woman is described as selling alcohol; a man arrives drunk at a wake and later drowns because he's too drunk to follow the instructions that would save his life.

Parents need to know that The Sittin' Up, set in the Deep South in the 1940s, concerns a community's mourning of a beloved man and may bring up questions about death, its aftermath, and different cultures' funeral customs. Since the departed was the last survivor of slavery in a small African-American community in the South, the story also may prompt discussion of the issues facing black people in the years following the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Most issues the book raises offer a teaching moment.