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    Dark Sons
    Dark Sons
    Dark Sons
    Ebook138 pages57 minutes

    Dark Sons

    By Nikki Grimes

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In this winner of the Coretta Scott King Honor, bestselling and award-winning author Nikki Grimes uses free-verse poetry to powerfully tell the story of two boys, living in different times and lands, who both struggle with their faith as they watch their families fall apart. Sam’s father was always a strong Christian, and so when his dad leaves Sam and his mom for another woman, and then announces his new wife is pregnant, Sam feels abandoned—even by God. Ishmael knows he’s the first son of Abraham, and feels cherished by his father because of this position. But when visitors tell Abraham and his cruel wife, Sarah, that the real promised child will arrive soon, Ishmael is worried—and when Isaac arrives, Abraham becomes distant. Even Abraham’s God seems to be leaving Ishmael behind.Sam and Ishmael’s stories and strong poetic voices connect to create a powerful narrative structure in Grimes’ story of faith, heartache, and forgiveness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateAug 24, 2010
    ISBN9780310408017
    Author

    Nikki Grimes

    New York Times bestselling author Nikki Grimes is the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award and the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Her distinguished works include ALA Notable book What is Goodbye?, Coretta Scott King Award winner Bronx Masquerade, and Coretta Scott King Author Honor books Jazmin's Notebook, Talkin' About Bessie, Dark Sons, The Road to Paris, and Words with Wings. Creator of the popular Meet Danitra Brown, Ms. Grimes lives in California.

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    Reviews for Dark Sons

    4/5

    34 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. It was a bit confusing in the beginning because it jumps between the stories of Ishmael and Sam but once I got the flow of the book I was hooked. I really liked that Nikki Grimes used different fonts for each boy it made it much easier to keep up with the stories.
    • 4/5
      In theory, I love this book.As an adult with an appreciation for poetic structure and narrative methodology, I love this book. As a teacher working with frustrated, male students who feel immense pain from their family situations, I love this book.I'm not sure how much I would love the storylines themselves, though. Her work is flawless, but I felt it dragged on a bit.That being said, if I were a strict believer in Biblical stories, or I believed or wanted young people to believe that Jewish Scriptures told stories worth knowing, then I may really love this. Grimes uses the Biblical story of Ishmael first, then she analogously tells a story about a guy named Sam. Both Ishmael and Sam are frustrated by their fathers' choices, and each feels as though his father is not loving him adequately. Both sons deal with pain similarly, and both learn to trust and love their fathers in the end. The second half about Sam I liked more than the beginning, but I imagine that has everything to do with my lack of interest in reading Biblical stories in such a taken-for-granted-as-moral-code manner.
    • 4/5
      So beautifully written I stayed up half the night to finish it. If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top

    Book preview

    Dark Sons - Nikki Grimes

    Prologue

    ISHMAEL

    He calls himself my father.

    So why is he sending me away?

    This is the question

    I’m tired of asking.

    Better to accept what I know:

    between my mother and me,

    we have a bow, a loaf of bread,

    a waterskin, and the clothes

    on our backs.

    No donkey laden with bags of grain.

    No tent to pitch against the rain,

    or sun, or swirling dust.

    Just lonely desert ahead,

    a carpet of sharp rock,

    a smattering of trees,

    miles of dry weed and briar,

    without a settlement in sight.

    We can expect a company

    of wild goats or sheep,

    the few sturdy inhabitants

    of this terrain.

    Fresh well water is bound to be

    the stuff of dreams.

    My head hurts from

    imagining the worst.

    I ignore the tears in my eyes,

    pretend my father,

    a few feet away,

    is already dead,

    and take my mother’s hand.

    All will be well, I tell her,

    sounding as manly

    as I can muster

    at seventeen,

    knowing full well

    that our survival

    will strictly be

    a matter of miracle.

    SAM

    The moving van

    pulls away from the curb,

    cutting off my air supply.

    My anger a stammer,

    I stare through the window

    at the guy loading his car

    for the move from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

    He’s supposed to be my dad.

    I’m glad he’s not waiting

    for me to smile and wish him luck.

    Like I give a flying—

    What is he thinking,

    leaving Mom in the first place?

    Why does he have to run off?

    To start some new family?

    With her?

    Like we aren’t good enough,

    like I’m not all the son

    he’ll ever need.

    And what about tomorrow?

    Child support won’t put a dent

    in the rent,

    and Moms hasn’t worked a job

    in years.

    I don’t want to bring on her tears,

    so I keep quiet, and when she

    comes up to me

    and slips an arm around my waist,

    I say, "Yo, Mom. Not to worry.

    We’ll be okay. It’s all good."

    Sure, I know better.

    This city’s just waiting

    to eat us up alive.

    Book One

    FOREIGN COUNTRY

    My mother and I face the foreign country

    of the desert,

    valley of heat and sandstorm,

    and the false hope

    of juniper and olive tree—

    just enough green

    to tease the eye.

    Behind me, the grassy court

    of sheep, cattle, and goats.

    Before me, the cry of jackals,

    the kingdom of Thief

    and his brother, Wolf.

    Vultures lick their beaks

    while eagles draw my eye

    to the bowl of sky,

    and the horizon.

    Beersheba’s wild goats, wild sheep,

    and boar remind me

    that even her wilderness

    is kinder than the Negev beyond.

    All sandstone sculpture,

    a dance of naked mountains

    with occasional crags

    where wise Bedouins hide,

    the Negev boasts the bones

    of luckless travelers

    whose waterskins ran dry.

    Will Mother and I

    even reach this desert’s doorway?

    My thoughts thrash about

    for comfort,

    and it is this I hit upon:

    the life of the nomad

    is in my blood.

    My father left his father’s house

    long before I was born.

    For years on end,

    his family, servants, and cattle

    have wandered

    from Haran to Shechem,

    from Moreh to Egypt,

    from Ai to Bethel, and beyond,

    with settlements in between.

    Lo! My people are experts

    at striking camp,

    constantly in search

    of new grazing land,

    of fresh pasture,

    moving ever deeper

    into the Promised Land.

    I wonder, Father,

    did your stomach churn like mine

    the first time you stepped

    from the safe shadow

    of your city’s gate?

    Of course,

    our situations are different.

    When Jehovah

    called you out of Ur

    to conquer Canaan,

    you had a choice.

    Or did you?

    BEGINNINGS

    How did I get here

    at the edge of the desert,

    at the edge of tomorrows

    as pale as the sand?

    Oh, yes!

    I was born.

    That’s how it all began.

    HAMMURABI’S CODE OF LAWS #146

    If a man take a wife and she give this man a maid-servant as wife and she bear him children, and then a man take a wife and this maid assume equality with the wife: because she has borne him children her master shall not sell her for money, but he may keep her as a slave, reckoning her among the maid-servants.

    SURROGATE

    My father was eighty-five,

    rugged still, but his hair

    was dipped in silver

    and so was Sarah’s.

    She could have played the part

    of grandmother,

    but her long, lonely years

    without a child

    made that a cruel joke.

    Worse yet, she was pregnant

    with the promise of God

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