Book Review: EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk

Symbol for skateboarding.

The five-year-old little boy, whom I read to, wants to learn skateboarding, so his mother borrowed EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk by Sally Warner for me to read to him. The book is illustrated by Brian Biggs. The boy’s mother figured that a story about a boy, who skateboards would inspire her son to learn how to read or to listen quietly to this particular story. On the cover of this book, there is an illustration of a boy standing on a skateboard. This book is designed for older aged children, not for five-year-olds. This is an enjoyable story, but I think EllRay and his family are unrealistic.

The main plot of EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk is very entertaining, so I continued reading it for myself. The story begins with EllRay and Corey’s talking about Kevin, who is now hanging out with EllRay’s bully, Jared. Kevin tells EllRay that skateboarding is cool and EllRay should try to learn. Therefore, in order to become friends with Kevin again, EllRay tries to learn how to skateboard from his neighbor, Henry, and Henry’s friend, Fly. There is a problem. EllRay’s father tells him that he can’t visit Henry when Fly is present. Later in the book, Alfie, EllRay’s sister, convinces him to take her to Henry’s house when he visits. Fly places Alfie, a four-year-old, on a skateboard at the top of some porch stairs and sends her flying down face first to the ground. EllRay runs to her, slides his body along concrete to break her fall, and get cuts and scrapes on his body. EllRay fights Fly, who is eleven-years-old, in Henry’s yard. EllRay’s parents grounds him for disobeying his father, so he cannot learn how to skateboard for a while. Jared, EllRay’s bully, challenged him to a skateboarding contest on a Friday at a local park after school ends. After saving Alfie, EllRay’s body is in no shape to compete.

The events of the story spans eight days, from one Friday at school to the next Friday. EllRay’s teacher, Ms. Sanchez, gives the class an assignment on the first Friday for each student to choose a fairy tale that they identify with. EllRay chose Jack and the Beanstalk. The students will work on the story for the following school week and read it aloud to the class on the next Friday. The students had to make each fairy tale their own and tell the class why the story is important to them. The beanstalk represents all of the challenges EllRay encountered in an attempt to learn skateboarding, plan to beat Jared in a skateboarding contest, and finally, win Kevin back as a friend. Things did not turn out as he had planned. The giant he had to fight turned out to be Fly, not his bully Jared. However, by the end, Kevin expressed his desire to remain friends with EllRay even though he is now hanging out with Jared.

EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk is a children’s book, but it is not a picture book. This book has eighteen chapters, approximately 127 pages of text, and very few illustrations. I read the first four chapters of the book to the five-year-old boy. He listened quietly to those four chapters and then, told me to stop and finish the rest another time. He did interrupt my reading the chapters to discuss what had happened in the story, because I had shown him the few illustrations that are contained in those first four chapters. However, he was still not enthralled by the story. I liked the main plot of the book, so I kept it to read to myself. The five-year-old boy was just too young for this book. His interest in books are still motivated by colorful illustrations, which this book lacks. He asked me to read to him again, so he has finished listening to chapter five now while I have already finished the book. The main character, EllRay, in this book is eight years old. Therefore, I suppose this book is directed towards eight-year-old children, particularly boys and the skateboarding community in general. On Amazon.com, the book’s description shows that it is marketed for children from first grade to third grade. Therefore, the target audience would include ages six to nine.

The story, EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk, is told in the first-person narrative. As readers, we enter into the imaginary mind of an imaginary boy. Based upon the way EllRay narrates the story, I think the author authentically portrayed a boy’s outlook on life and personal challenges. The author, Sally Warner, throws in gendered perspectives to convince her readers that a boy is narrating the story. The boys in this book are competitive, but they still want friends.

The character, EllRay, describes himself and Kevin as “brown-skinned.” Well, brown-skinned could be anything. It could be European, Middle Eastern, East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Polynesian, Native American, Latin American, African, or Afro-American. We can find “brown-skinned” natives on virtually continent. However, when EllRay’s sister is introduced and an illustration of her is shown in chapter five, we can see from Alfie’s hairstyle that his sister is Black. Therefore, EllRay and Kevin are likely Black. By chapter nine, we see a dark-colored illustration of EllRay’s father, so he is likely Black as well. There are no illustrations of EllRay’s mother. The mother could be either white or black since she is not illustrated for us in this particular EllRay book.

The author tries to connect EllRay’s family to the Black community by fabricating unusual names like EllRay and Alfie, but I think she misses her mark. EllRay’s father is a geology professor and his mother writes fantasy fiction novels for adults. EllRay’s name is really Lancelot Raymond or “EllRay” for short. His sister’s name is really Alfleta, meaning “beautiful elf” in an ancient language, but everyone calls her “Alfie” for short. EllRay’s novelist mother chose those rare, fairy tale names for her children where, by comparison, the nicknames, “EllRay” and “Alfie,” actually sound like an improvement. Many Black Americans do have names not found among any other group in the world, but “EllRay” and “Alfie” sounds culturally inauthentic. I do not believe culturally assimilated, college-educated, middle-classed African-American parents would allow their children to walk around a predominantly white community with the nicknames “EllRay” and “Alfie.” It would be more believable if they allowed their children to be called “Lancelot” and “Alfleta” by everyone on a regular basis. Culturally assimilated Blacks tend to sever themselves culturally, geographically, socially, and politically from the Black American communities they have abandoned; yet, the author ignores reality and tries to connect this family to the Black American community anyway by giving the children unusual nicknames. If these characters were real, I highly doubt EllRay’s parents would try to maintain a cultural connection to the Black American community by fabricating names for their children.

The family was described having “civilized conversation” in chapter eight in the most unrealistic manner as to invoke how the media portrays the perfect white family from old black-and-white television series. The Black father calls EllRay to his office in chapter nine to tell EllRay to stay away from Fly, because Fly, is a troubled child. The father comes across as prejudiced and elitist. Based upon how EllRay’s father describes Fly, you get the sense that Fly comes from a lower economic class. Fly happens to be white based upon the illustration. The author cloaked these Black characters with a culturally “white” identity. There are plenty of Blacks, who are culturally assimilated as “honorary whites.” They are “honorary whites” by virtue of their numerous white and immigrant associates in their personal and professional lives, their college education, cultural behaviors, skin color, hair texture, hair styles, facial features, eye color, racial admixture, attitudes, habits, interests, speech patterns, their gait, and most importantly, occupation and income. For example, EllRay’s father plays golf with Henry’s father as a social pastime. Most Black American males within the Black American communities like to play basketball as a social pastime. Ellray’s father is socially, geographically, and culturally severed from the Black American community. Such Blacks in real life choose to separate themselves, culturally and geographically, from lower-classed Blacks even when they have the option to buy secluded, expensive homes and condos within the wealthy neighborhoods of majority Black American communities. If EllRay’s father was prejudiced and elitist, he would not feel those attitudes towards a lower-classed white person. He would direct his contempt and prejudice towards an impoverished Black person or a middle-classed, college educated Black American, who has chosen to remain “culturally Black.” Blacks, who truly act the way the author portrayed them would rarely if ever tell their Black children not to play with white children, who have made mistakes. They tend to be forgiving towards whites and immigrants for their mistakes and crimes, not judgmental or prejudiced. Such culturally assimilated Black parents would tell their children “everyone makes mistakes,” to give that troubled white children opportunities to redeem themselves, and not to be defined by those mistakes for the rest of their lives. It is unrealistic for the author not to expose the double standards of race and ethnicity while she is writing about a culturally assimilated Black family in a majority white neighborhood. For culturally assimilated Blacks, surrounding themselves with as many whites and immigrants as possible elevates their power and prestige above all other Blacks. If the author did not know these intricacies to Black identities and social experiences, she should not have made her lead character and his family Black at all. The author’s narration of a boy’s point-of-view appears accurate and genuine. However, many of the author’s portrayals of fictional events, affecting a fictional Black character, appear inauthentic and disingenuous.

The author, Sally Warner, made EllRay, Alfie, their father, and possibly Kevin culturally assimilated Blacks in a majority white neighborhood. Regardless of their income bracket, their parents’ college education, or their parents’ occupational prestige, I find it unbelievable that a Black would ever be allowed to physically defend oneself or one’s family and not get arrested. Fly’s violence was directed at EllRay’s sister. EllRay started a fight with Fly in her defense. Henry’s mother found EllRay fighting Fly. If these characters were real In American society, whites and immigrants have the privilege to commit acts of violence and any other violation against Blacks with impunity simply for Black Americans’ not knowing their places beneath them. Fly’s actions would be socially and legally acceptable and EllRay would be arrested and sent to juvenile detention. That is the reality of America’s multicultural society. The multicultural majority power groups thinks this double standard to be normal expressions of American laws, customs, and beliefs. Black Americans cannot defend their lives from assault, murder, or any other crime committed by a non-black person without being charged and found guilty of a crime or civil violation. Black Americans simply do not have the right of self-defense in American society. The multicultural majority power groups use nullification to create that double standard, incriminating Black Americans for their insubordination, disobedience, or in other words, asserting their equality with whites and immigrants. If this story was about a real eight-year-old Black boy, who defended his sister against a white boy, Henry’ s mother or Fly’s mother would have called the police on him and EllRay would be in juvenile detention as a criminal, a thug, not a hero, not a “Lancelot.”

Well, you may say this is a fictional book. The author has “creative license.” However, fiction mirrors reality. Fiction reveals something about human behaviors or society at large even in science fiction and fantasy books. In this book the author, Sally Warner, suppresses the realities of social life by bleaching the Black from EllRay’s identity by calling him “brown,” so she would not have to deal with the realities of Black life at all. Real events would not have played out as Warner had written them. Sally Warner’s portrayal of Blacks in this book is unrealistic and disingenuous. I would not recommend that culturally “Black,” Black Americans read this book. The best demographics for this book includes whites, white ethnics, and African-Americans, who are culturally assimilated and middle-classed like EllRay’s family.

The author, Sally Warner, may have had good intentions to portray Blacks in what she perceives as the best possible light. The father is a science professor. The mother is a cultured writer. This is a middle-classed Black family in a predominately white neighborhood. I just don’t believe that Blacks can be portrayed in the best possible light by using the stereotypical white family from old black-and-white television shows as a standard. Why do Blacks have to act “culturally white” at all to be tolerated and perceived as good, intelligent people by non-blacks? This book is just a part of a larger trend. Even television shows and movies prefer to portray the “best” Black Americans as “white-acting” or “culturally assimilated honorary whites.” If American society had room for Black Americans as equal, Black Americans would not have to change themselves at all to be accepted. Sally Warner’s EllRay book communicates a preference by multicultural majority power groups for a specific kind of Black American her community is willing to tolerate as equals. The Black characters in this EllRay Jakes book would have been more believable if they were any race or ethnicity except for Black. Black Americans have exceptional experiences, not shared by any other group in the United States. If Sally Warner wants to write about Black characters, she needs to expose the realities as Black Americans would experience them. Fiction, regardless of its fictional elements, is supposed to reveal human nature, not suppress or distort it.

The main plot, dialogue, theme, and pacing of EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk were all wonderful. Sally Warner is a talented author. I started out reading this book to a five-year-old boy and ended up keeping it for myself. However, I did not like the mischaracterization of Blacks in this story. I think EllRay, Kevin, Alfie, and EllRay’s father should not have been portrayed as Black at all. If the author wanted to write about Blacks, I would have preferred her to just call them “Black” or “Black American,” not “brown-skinned” and not even as “African-American.” I think putting a proper label on these Black characters would have forced her to write realistic interactions between the characters in the story. The author or the publisher made the race or ethnicity of these characters to be elusive, so the characters’ interactions resulted in unrealistic and unbelievable outcomes. The author’s characterizations of her fictional Black characters are disconnected from all of the great aspects of this story.

Despite my criticisms of the author’s Black characterizations in this story, I still recommend EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk to parents, teachers, students, and schools in predominately non-black communities. This would be a good book for non-black and culturally assimilated Black parents and their children. Culturally assimilated Black parents would consider the Black characterizations in this book to be accurate portrayals of themselves, however unrealistic they may be. EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk would be a good book to use for a child’s reading log in the aforementioned communities. For example, your child can read one chapter per night for his or her reading log. Also, I recommend this book for those children in the aforementioned communities, who wants to learn how to skateboard. Your children will not learn how to skateboard by reading this book, but the goal is to inspire them to read, to love the library, and to improve their reading, writing, and spelling skills. Just because I had criticisms about this book, it does not mean I can’t still value it for its great aspects. The plot, dialogue, and theme were all very strong. Sally Warner does a great job of reeling you in at the first chapter. I did enjoy reading the story. I got sucked in while reading this story to a five-year-old boy and I wanted to find out how the story would end. Sally Warner is a very talented author.

Reference

Warner, Sally. EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk. New York: Viking, 2013.

Links:

About Sally Warner on sallywarnerbooks.com

EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk on Amazon.com

EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk on BarnesandNoble.com

EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk on PenguinRandomHouse.com

EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk on Target.com

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