The Baptism

Moses, Shelia P. 2007. The Baptism.

Narrated by Leon Curry, the 'devilish' twin, The Baptism is the story of one week in the life of an unforgettable family. Leon and Luke are twins that have recently celebrated their twelfth family--and their mother won't rest until she sees her boys safely baptized at their local church. That means one week to learn to be good OR one week to get all the sinning over with....depending on your perspective of course. Leon likes to sin. He doesn't hide that fact. And he doesn't have much use for church or saints. But what he fears more than God's wrath is his mama's switch. Now don't get me wrong, we twins don't do any major, major sinning like stealing. Just stuff Ma would take our skin off for if she ever knew about it. We lie when we need to. That's a sin. We take stuff like an extra cookie out of the jar if we want to. That's a sin. We beat up kids because they white. That's a sin. But the biggest sin that we do is to our big brother, Joe. (8-9) If I have to get saved, I am going to do wrong as long as I can. (21) Told with lots of style, The Baptism is an enjoyable read. My favorite part of the story, I must admit, is when the tornado is coming and Leon's mother still wants to punish him: Then Ma looks up at me and I know that I'm in trouble. "Now, Leon, you the oldest and I told you to stay at Miss Sarah's house if you saw a storm coming. Get three branches, boy." "Ma, it's raining and a tornado out there." "I don't care, get the branches." (70-71)