The thing is, Cassie jumps back into dreamland, so it's hard to tell exactly what happened. Daddy had trouble getting work-so much so, that he eventually left the family, and never came home. Every now and again, she hints that there was trouble in paradise. Cassie combines her real history with her fantasies to give us a sense of what her life was like when she was a child. It's more like a bunch of childhood memories combined with dreams. Tar Beach isn't a story where regular events happen in order. One important note: Cassie's not really flying. Sometimes the stars reach down and lift her up into the dark, and then she's flying through the New York City sky. Arts At the New Museum, a Long-Overdue Showcase for the Great Faith Ringgold By Marley Marius FebruThis week marks the opening of Faith Ringgold: American People, a sprawling. Often, while she's lying on her mattress, Cassie likes to look up at the stars. What is a roof mattress, you ask? Well, it's a mattress that they keep on the roof.

Honey!), Cassie chills with her little brother Be Be on their roof mattress. While Mommy and Daddy drink beer and play cards with the neighbors (hi, Mr. They call it Tar Beach because they like to go there to relax during the summer. See, the thing about Tar Beach is that it's not a beach at all-it's actually the rooftop of the apartment building where eight-year-old Cassie Lightfoot lives with her fam. There's also no sunbathing, because Tar Beach only opens after the sun goes down. Welcome to Tar Beach, where the sand is more of a flat black area and the ocean is…well, there is no ocean.

Ringgold tar beach