[Review written by my younger self]
I turned the last page, expecting more and yet finding only the short bio on Virginia Hamilton. I felt like nothing had really been resolved. Hamilton's adolescent novel, Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, left me very disappointed by the ending. However, in looking back I realize now how powerful and effective a writer Hamilton is, and that I was wrong in initially accusing her of the deus ex machina. A lot of my initial disappointment came from my lack of insight into the text. On second read, though, I find that the precise and all-inclusive details give much insight into the issues behind this story of a brother and sister, their deadbeat mother, and the mystery behind their dead uncle, Brother Rush. The issues of disease (specifically porphyria), family, and the "poor man's reality" is evident in all scenes presented between Hamilton's vivid characters.

The surreal existence of Brother Rush is comparable to the mystery surrounding the title character in Morrison's Beloved. Lovers of Morrison's story will highly benefit in their read should they continue the idea of the mystical versus the tangible in this tale. A seasoned professor at my university, in fact, refers to Hamilton as the adolescent's version of Morrison.

Readers of Hamilton's novel will benefit from reading it with more than just a shallow glimpse into the story itself. Even young readers can appreciate the many social ramifications the novel carries throughout its pages. While Hamilton does ilicit a happy ending, it is tainted with a deliberate cynicism and a thought-provoking aura that characterizes Hamilton's writing. ( )

Teenaged Tree and her brother, Dab, live together, and alone, in a shabby apartment while their mother lives and works elsewhere (it's not entirely clear where and at what) and occasionally visits to fill the fridge and cupboards for them. It's far from a perfect situation, but Tree loves her brother and seems to have contented herself with all the hard work that goes into caring for the two of them. But then she starts seeing the vision of a young man standing in the middle of the table in a back room of the apartment, and gradually comes to realize that he is the ghost of her mother's brother. He tacitly takes her through his memories, back to when she was little more than a baby, and she learns some disturbing things about her family. Her uncle has, it seems, come to her as a harbinger of soon-to-be events which will change her small family forever.
I'm not sure what to say about this one, mostly because I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's a strange little story, disturbing in parts, both in its actual plot content and in its disjointed structure. Tree's mother is troubling on many levels, not least of which is that I can't tell if Hamilton means for the reader to be as angered at her actions as I was. It's certainly an interesting story, and definitely different than a lot of offerings in this genre, and Tree's character is well drawn and instantly one for whom you want to root. ( )

This book makes me think of how we do the best we can at a given time. As a reader it can be easy to judge a character for his/her choices and actions. This is another tale that over the course of a story, my feeling towards a character can change and become empathetic. I feel for the main character, Tree, and the responsibilities she takes on out of unconditional love for her older brother Dab. The story starts with attention to clothing and light. Tree meets a ghost, Brother Rush, at the beginning of the book. He is wearing the finest suit she ever did see. I could tell from the beginning that this young ghost died at an early age and is wearing his funeral clothes. Virginia Hamilton also focuses on the joy the sun brings as it radiates from their skin. Brother Rush brings Tree back in time to learn about the earlier years and the life of her mother, uncle (Brother Rush) and herself. Through these time warps, Tree finds the truth of how they were treated and of her uncle’s death. In current time, Tree takes care of her Dab, as if she were older and is more responsible. Dab is sick and Tree didn’t know why. Her absent mother Vy did not face the severity of his disease until it was too late. Like Vy’s brothers, Dab has porphyria, and takes him to the hospital where he barely had a chance of survival. This is an inherited disease that is painful and sensitive to the sun. While Dab was in the hospital, Tree made “Welcome Home” signs and decorated the house for his arrival. The night before he died, Tree dreamt that she fell off the bridge and Dab stayed on. She soon realized that he stayed on to live in the afterlife. He has joined Brother Rush where they can be in the sun and no longer suffer from porphyria. As a reader and along with Tree, I tried to understand her mother’s approach of preventing the disease that killed her brothers and her own son. Death leaves us with many choices including funeral clothes and how to live on. ( )

Kind of a weird tale this one. Tree (14) is technically under the care of her mother (M'Vy) but she only drops in once a week or so to leave food and say hello, otherwise, she is absent, leaving Tree to care for her mentally handicapped slightly older brother (Dab) alone. As the book opens, Tree starts seeing a ghost. The ghost is M'Vy's long dead brother, Brother Rush. He visits Tree in a small room in their apartment. He doesn't talk to her, but shows her visions of the past, when she was a small child.
Dab, meanwhile, is getting more and more sick with a mysterious illness that makes him hurt all over his body, and be unable to keep any food down. M'Vy eventually has to take charge and actually DO something to take care of her handicapped son, who she has always blamed for his own mental state.
Told in third person, but with all focus on Tree's thoughts and actions, it is a deeply introspective, but terribly slow moving book. The transitions from real-world to ghost-visions are sometimes a little confusing. It took a while to get into the book, but it never fully grabbed me. I don't regret reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else particularly. ( )

This story takes place in a small Midwestern city, in Southwestern Ohio. Fourteen-year old Sweet Teresa Pratt, better known as Tree, lived alone and takes care of her “somewhat retarded” older brother, Dabs (short for Dabney), whom she loves with fierce devotion. Her mother, Sweet Muh Vy (short for Viola), works and brought food and money to their fatherless family. One day, Tree encounters the ghost of her uncle (her mother’s dead brother) which calls himself, Brother Rush. She entered into “his space” and could see and revive her forgotten childhood experiences and past events: specifically her father, who left the family, mother Vy, who abused Dabs, and Brother Rush, who possibly committed suicide. While Tree was assimilating these past events, Dabs became ill with porphyria and died. Tree found it hard to accept Dab’s death, and her mother’s new boyfriend. She planned to run away. Her mother gave Tree her freedom but admitted to terrible guilt about leaving the children alone while she worked.
Review:
In this young adult novel, fourteen-year-old Tree feels abandoned and sometimes resentful for her mother’s frequent absences. The theme speaks about the intense need for the love and presence of working mothers expressed by adolescent daughters. Hamilton shows how a mother-daughter relationship is constructed in the context of an African- American family structure. The author’s writing style is true to the roots of African American culture. The dialog among the characters is in the tradition of the African-American culture; which is written in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Even though this book received numerous awards it was difficult to read AAVE and interpret what the author was trying to say.
Award:
A Newberry Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Award for author, 1983
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Notable Children’s Books, 1983
Parent’s Choice Awards, 1982
Boston Globe Horn Book Award
American Book Awards Honor Book ( )