{"id":1239,"date":"2015-05-21T10:21:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T10:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/caribbean-book-club-join-us-for-a-live-chat-with-qthe-jumbiesq-author-tracey-baptiste\/"},"modified":"2023-09-04T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T04:00:14","slug":"caribbean-book-club-join-us-for-a-live-chat-with-qthe-jumbiesq-author-tracey-baptiste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/caribbean-book-club-join-us-for-a-live-chat-with-qthe-jumbiesq-author-tracey-baptiste\/","title":{"rendered":"Caribbean Book Club: Meet “The Jumbies” Author Tracey Baptiste"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jacket Art by Vivienne T<\/a>Author photo by Latifah Abdur<\/a><\/p>\n

The first time that I realized that my kids had no idea what jumbies and the like were, my youngest son 6 or 7 and was going to be in a pan concert There was a play included with a little part about douen. \u00a0I didn’t go to the rehearsal, and my Christian American husband called me… confused. \u00a0They had explained it all to him, but he still didn’t love the idea.<\/p>\n

In America there are plenty of fairy tales that keep kids and teens from doing certain things…<\/strong> How do you keep kids from being vain and spending too much time in the bathroom? \u00a0Bloody Mary. Well, maybe that’s not the point of that one, but either way, the husband wasn’t having any of it. \u00a0He could play in the concert, but that part of the story was off limits. Dead kids with their feet on backwards? Nope. He wasn’t going for that – no sir. \u00a0I didn’t argue. \u00a0I have to admit, like any Caribbean kid, these stories freak me out.<\/p>\n

So enter Tracey Baptiste’s new book, “The Jumbies.”<\/a><\/strong> I wasn’t sure that I was ready to revisit any of those stories. \u00a0My parents didn’t spend much time on them really, but I knew enough to be scared as a kid. \u00a0This book was hard to pick up, bringing back that fearful little kid who preferred a night light, but even harder to put down once I got started. \u00a0The foreshadowing is masterfully done, the descriptions are vivid, and\u00a0when it\u2019s scary? It\u2019s scary.\u00a0 When I think about it, it probably isn\u2019t too much more frightening than the American fairy tales that I grew up with\u2026 I mean\u2026 some woman lured kids to a candy house and tried to eat them, or something right?\u00a0 If you really think about it, that\u2019s some pretty scary stuff too.<\/p>\n

Recently, I will had the pleasure of talking with Tracey Baptiste, author of book for young readers, \u201cThe Jumbies.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Watch the interview here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KX8rpxrVCLs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n