The Mighty Miss Malone

Twelve-year-old Deza Malone reviews her last essay of the school year for Mrs. Karen Needham, “the best teacher in the world” (1). In it, Deza details each member of her family. Deza credits her mother with being “the glue that holds this family together” (4). Her mother is smart and beautiful and cleans for a prominent local family, the Carsdales. Her father, born in Flint, is unemployed but wants to work as a carpenter. He has a habit of creating alliterative sentences and names, and he is a great storyteller and poet. Deza’s 15-year-old brother Jimmie has an excellent singing voice and is physically small for his age. He often brags loudly and gets into fights often. Deza writes the most about herself in the essay. She explains that two years prior, her mother was ill with “Tic Do La Roo” (10) (a painful damaged nerve) and needed a helper at home. Now Deza’s class includes her best friend, Clarice Anne Johnson. Deza claims in the essay that her brother says she has “the heart of a champion […] Jimmie also said I am the smartest kid he has ever met, but my all-encompassing and pervasive humility prevents me from putting that on this list” (12).