Book Review
Charcoal Boys
By Roger Mello
Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn
Published October 8, 2019
Why I chose this book:
Mom's Review
After reading Charcoal Boys, I felt the way I did after reading The Sound and the Fury: a bit overwhelmed, like I was floundering in bits of information and trying to make sense of what transpired. I also felt the way I did after reading the short stories in German realist Theodor Storm's The Rider on the White Horse, like I'd been permitted an intimate glimpse of someone's private life. My reaction to Charcoal Boys is all over the place and is lasting. I do not feel as though I read a children's picture book (in fact, I only read a little bit to T, because it was too challenging for him to follow), but rather a very short literary classic that happened to be accompanied by illustrations. I find myself questioning not only what happened in the text, but what I should take away from it.
The story is in some ways simple. A hornet observes a boy who burns charcoal. The boy talks with a friend about some inspector. The friend gives the boy a key. The boy rides on a coal truck to the ironworks and then returns. The boy tries to knock down the hornet's nest. The hornet stings him. I think the boy dies. I am not sure. I want to know for sure. The hornet says,"After the fever the boy flies for the first time," which I believe I am to understand is the boy's soul leaving his body. Perhaps. It is the spaces between these snapshots of narration by the hornet, the deliberate holes left open to interpretation, imagination, and invention, that leave the reader questioning long after the reading is done. Charcoal Boys has a depth that would be a delight to unpack.
After finishing the book, I did something that I wish I had done before I began. I read a bit about the author. As it turns out, "Rather than relying on written narrative to tell the story, Mello invites his young readers to fill the gaps with imagination." I am meant to feel uncertain. I am meant not only to ask, "What happens?" but answer it as well. I am meant to challenge myself to create and to connect the information at hand.
Charcoal Boys and the questions it raises are still with me. What does it mean? What if....? I would suggest it for older children, such as fifth and sixth graders, or even middle school students studying narrative forms.
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| Image from Elsewhere Editions' website https://elsewhereeditions.org/books/the-charcoal-boys/ |
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