On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison by Jerdine Nolen

Toni Morrison began life as Chloe Ardelia Wofford. She was the second oldest of four children: an older sister Lois and two younger brothers, George and Raymond.

Chloe loved to listen to the stories told by her parents and grandparents. These were stories of the Bible, of myths and legends, of ghosts and the supernatural. But Chloe also loved to listen to the music they made, playing the violin and clarinet and singing. These stories stayed inside Chloe and stirred her imagination.

In Lorain, Ohio where she lived, Chloe attended Hawthorne Elementary School along with children from many different countries. These children often were just learning to speak and read English, so Chloe was often asked to read. Many people struggled to pronounce her name.

When Chloe was twelve, she decided to convert from her mother's African Methodist Espiscopal faith to Catholicism. Her baptismal name was Anthony, after St. Anthony of Padua. Her name was now Chloe Anthony Wofford.

As a teen, Chloe worked as a housekeeper and then at Lorain Public Library shelving books. Working in a library offered Chloe the opportunity to read many books.

Chloe's parents placed great importance on hard work and an education. Chloe attended Howard University. As in elementary school, her friends found her name difficult to pronounce so Chloe had them begin using the short-form, Toni, for Anthony. Chloe went on to study at Cornell University and then teach at Texas Southern University. She returned to Howard to teach English and met her husband, Harold Morrison who was an architect. Their marriage failed just before she gave birth to a second son, and Chloe decided to leave Howard and move to New York to work as an editor. This was to be the turning point in Chloe's life as she worked by day as an editor and wrote in the evenings. 

Her first novel, The Bluest Eye was published when she was thirty-nine-years-old, under the name of Toni Morrison, something she wasn't too happy about. But her career as a writer was just beginning. It was a career that would lead to the publishing of many books and a Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African American woman to be awarded the prize.

Discussion

On Her Wings describes Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author, Toni Morrison's remarkable life. It also distills the essence of Morrison's writing for younger readers. 

Her books attempted to help readers understand one another better, especially those who are different from what we know or understand. Having come from a family where storytelling was so important, Morrison recognized that it was the difficult stories that were important to tell. She had the courage to do so, in her own unique style. These were stories of the struggles of Black Americans to survive and thrive in the post-slavery era. Morrison's purpose was to foster acceptance and understanding. In On Her Wings Nolen writes, "Inside the world created in her books, she sought to empower and heal, especially around the topic of skin color. She showed that it was just fine that people come in many different colors."  

The author also attempts to convey to her readers the importance and power of storytelling, listening and words were to Morrison and how this influence came from her grandparents and parents and in turn, influenced her own storytelling. From listening to those stories early in her life, Toni Morrison was able to pass on the lessons she learned to her readers. "For Chloe the tales were frightening, thrilling, full of music and adventure -- stories that were at times painful, beautiful, and wise -- sometimes all at once. She learned those stories and retold them to others." In those stories, "Toni Morrison wrote about the history and pain of Black life in the United States...She had learned from her parents and grandparents and great-grandparents the language of fearlessness and dignity and, above all, to love and value yourself."  Nolen encourages young readers to go on to tell their stories too!

In her Author's Note at the back, Jerdine Nolen writes about how she initially struggled to read Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eyes and how this was also the case with many of her other novels. However Nolen discovered Morrison's words opened up her "...her mind and heart to a new or another perspective." It would seem Nolen found Toni Morrison's books difficult to read but very much worth the extra effort. In additon to the Author's Note, Nolen includes a detailed section titled Learn More About Toni Morrison that lists her works, her official website, quotes and much more.

The beautiful illustrations of James E. Ransome, rendered in watercolour and collage portray the major events in Toni Morrison's life and capture the essence of Jerdine Nolen's message as well.

Book Details:

On Her Wings: The Story of Toni Morrison by Jerdine Nolen
New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers