"Once upon a time there was a little boy named King Shabazz who didn't believe in Spring."
It's one of the most realistic depictions I've ever seen of children in the inner city. King Shabazz sits on the bottom step of his apartment building, and has a cynical back-and-forth with his friend Tony Polito.
"Everybody talking bout Spring!"
"Big deal."
"No such thing."
Right!"
But it's still got a sweet and poignant story, as the boy decides he's had enough one morning, and sets out with his friend to "see what do I see." (Wearing his jacket and his shades, King Shabazz asks, "You comin with me, man?") They pass their school and playground - "Ain't no Spring in there" - and then reach their street's closest intersection, which is as far as either boy has ever traveled alone. On the other side, they see a church's stained-glass windows and a take-out restaurant with barbecue smells. Then they're distracted by a mysterious abandoned car that's sitting in a vacant lot. But turn the page, and it just might lead them to a sign of spring after all…
"The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Spring" was written by poet Lucille Clifton, who writes some very believable dialogue for the boys, along with an engaging story. Two of her poetry books were finalists for a Pulitzer Prize, according to Wikipedia, and she skillfully uses language in this book to suggest the boys' personality. She omits apostrophes when she's writing in dialect, implying that the boys' new words are still words in their own way. But more than that, she captures their two personalities - both the plucky defiance of King Shabazz and the innocent naivity of his friend Tony.
I loved the illustrations that Brinton Turkle drew for the book. They're simple sketches,
colorfully filled in, though at first the colors are often shades of grey against a white background. His first picture shows the skeptical boy whispering conspiratorially in the background at his school, seated among 16 students, with his teacher's legs in the foreground.
King Shabazz is frustrated when he hears his mother talking about crops coming up - but Tony makes a discovery when he trips on the rocks in the vacant lot. "Man, I think you tripped on these crops," King says with a laugh. There's a little patch of tiny yellow flowers, poking up from some spiky green leaves. And when they reach the abandoned car, they see four blue bird eggs in a robin's nest.
"Man, it's spring," King Shabazz whispers to himself.