Home Girl Blog

A Fun List Of Black History Biographies For Kids Including The One American History Book Every Household Should Own.

The best part about this list is that, in many cases, you and your child will get to experience learning about these interesting stories for the first time together! My son finds it funny and fascinating each time I tell him we are learning together. The little ones in your life will too. Hopefully it will spark their interest in reading biographies for life and they will be the foundation of a more informed, more tolerant future.

After I finished this list, I realized it features a lot of males. I review books based heavily on the reading life of the kid in my life. I'm a boy mom, so pretty-please forgive the slant. This list contains 17 biographies, 5 books that are biography-ish and 1 book that everyone should have. 

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Now to it...

Buy The Book 001: A Hat, NYC Pandas, And A Descent Into Madness

Libraries are hands down, collectively, the best places on earth. You walk in and books and videos featuring all things entertainment to education are at your fingertips for free. Going in to find a new bestseller or your fave's latest release and finding it on the shelf or getting that email notification that the book you placed on hold is available is like winning the geek lottery. Don't deny yourself and/or your kids those precious moments--borrow books from your local libraries. 

If you're a reader and/or you are raising kids who read, maybe you appreciate the comfort of a well-stocked book nook. Maybe you like to take your time to read a book without late fines peeking over your shoulder. Maybe you'd like to see your big kid introduce their favorite books to their friends or younger siblings. Maybe you like to highlight passages and make notes in the margins and dog-ear pages. Maybe you want interesting books for your houseguests to browse and perhaps borrow. Sometimes, you just gotta buy the book. I highly recommend finding your local used, independent or franchise bookstore. I frequent all of the above as well as Barnes & Noble (because books). If you prefer to shop on Amazon, every book title and image on my site is linked to Amazon.com. See the Disclosure statement near the bottom of the sidebar on this page. 

For this series, Buy The Book, each week in each new post you will find book recommendations from three categories of books--picture books for early readers (Kids), biographies and chapter books for elementary aged readers (Pre-Tweens), and books suitable for adults (Adults)--one of each per week. The books will be from my and Zack's (he's 7 but reads like a big kid) personal libraries or from our library wish list. Add them to yours or buy them for your bookie friends. There will occasionally be themed BTB posts focused on one author, topic, genre, reading level, etc. Why buy kids books when they're only kids for a minute? Buy them because they will enjoy them and pass them on to spread the joy of reading to other kids and families when they outgrow them. Books for teens have been purposefully omitted here since I don't live with one and lack experience in the reading lives of teenagers. Soon come. Each week you will also find a fun library and independent bookstore challenge to explore the ones in your town (Lit Homework ). 

Continue reading to see this week's recommendations to build your family's home library. 

20 Children's Books Featuring Black Characters Every Child Should Read

Black History Month is over, but that doesn't mean we have to stop reading about the contributions of African Americans to our country. It does mean we should keep the conversation going. 

Last month, we probably had lots of conversations and classes about African Americans in historical contexts, but it's important to remember that we all have shared experiences everyday as Americans. Our children are so lucky--they are not privy to news headlines and media messages that don't always protray African Americans in the best light. All that stuff awaits them years down the road; for now, we get to head off all those messages with more realistic ones. All kids love puppies, are anxious about some aspect of school life, meet new babies for the first time and have best friends. Thousands of kids books confirm that. My son's growing library consists of lots of classics. He was an early reader and I was so busy buying the books on every must-read kids list that I failed to notice how absent his growing book collection was of reflections of himself. 

Following are just a few of the books I found, many of which I have read, others I can't wait to read and all of which I am thrilled to be sharing with you all today.  They are picture books, history books and chapter book series that will expertly diversify every child's book collection. 

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please CLICK HERE to read my Full Disclosure statement.  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I'm going to enjoy the next few days napping as much as possible and doing everything else in between meals and trips to the bathroom. 

Thanks so much for reading Home Girl Blog in 2013! 

See y'all in 2014! 

Book Review + Giveaway! Curlilocks and the Three Pink Pandas by Yolanda King

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the cutest book reading ever! It took place in The Little Yellow House, formally known as Dedrick-Hamilton House connected to the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce.

SUPER appropriate, because the house central to the plot in the most adorable adaptation of Goldielocks and the Three Bears was also a little yellow house! See?

How cute is that? Here are a few pics from the reading...

Book Review: The House Girl by Tara Conklin

The House Girl by Tara Conklin follows an enslaved house girl, Josephine and young lawyer, Lina. Alternating chapters, their stories are juxtaposed against one another--the events leading up to Josephine's escape from slavery in 1800's Virginia and the the events leading up to an escape of sorts for modern day New York City attorney, Lina, as she seeks to find a descendant of Josephine as potential plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the U.S. government for reparations. 

Josephine tends to an ailing, barren woman and her aging husband on a Virginia plantation nearing it's demise. The field hands, including the loving couple who raised Josephine as their own until she was moved into the slave owner's house, are aging and no new slave purchases are being made. Josephine makes these and other observations as she spends time between the house and the slave quarters and captures images of her beloved friends and the plantation with paint and canvas. Her mistress paints to pass the time and allows Josephine paint and materials to create her own works of art. The author does a decent job of conveying the harsh realities of slavery and what a young slave girl's inner world might have been like as she worked up her resolve to run. 

Lina is a bright young lawyer and daughter of a famous artist. Her search for a plaintiff for her case leads her to an art showing of paintings believed to have been painted by the house girl, Josephine, but with no proof, credit for the works are given to the mistress of the plantation. It's at the art showing that Lina decides she would find Josephine's descendants. Losing her mother as a toddler, and having only fragments of memories and her father's stories of her mother, Lina's mother is a mystery to her. She learns from friends of her mother's that she looks very much like her--dark hair, olive skin, Latino heritage maybe? She wondered because her mother named her Carolina, pronounced caro-lee-na, even though they are an English-speaking family. Eventually she begins to see that she has been deliberately kept in the dark about the details of her mother's life by her father's design. While piecing together Joesphine's past, Lina finds herself also piecing together her own.

When the reparations case came up, I braced myself. Tara Conklin, the author, is not a black person. Frankly I wasn't sure how she would handle the subject. I was relieved as I read about the powerful black business man behind the lawsuit, and his desire not to win the case, but to force the country to have the conversation. He desired acknowledgement of the hard work that slaves did to build this country and wanted the government to apologize and to pay up, not with checks in the mail to every brown citizen, but in monuments and community enrichment programs and a wall listing every name of every slave who died building the industries that gave some of America's wealthiest families their riches. He wanted to open the books. He wanted a reckoning. He made his motives clear to Lina and her partner in an awesome bit of dialogue early on in the book. That got me excited. After that, I was like, okay Tara, let's see what you got here. 

This book is beautifully written. Every character is richly developed. There's a side-story woven in about a family that helps on the Underground Railroad that is told almost completely in letters of correspondence that Lina finds in archives, and it had me turning pages so hard. Then there was one single unsent letter from the archives near the end of the book that spans about fifty pages that gave me so much life, y'all. The descriptions of the artwork in this book were so vivid that I feel like I'd recognize them if I ran across them. It would be so cool if an artist were to create the paintings in this book and hold a real exhibit in New York City. I can't imagine such a thing has never happened before. If it hasn't, let's hope an adventurous artists runs across my suggestion. While I'm on the topic of making this book live and breathe, with Lina's story set in modern day New York City, and Josephine's in the antebellum south, this book begs for a screenplay with amazing flashbacks. In the right hands, it could be an amazing film. 

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. Y'all know good and well my reviews are always honest, so no need to ever question that. ;-)

Book Review: It Jes' Happened When Bill Traylor Started To Draw

Bill Traylor is an ex-slave who, after growing up on a plantation and working alongside sharecropping parents, found himself homeless. In his 80's, he began to draw his memories of growing up on a plantation and his life along the way. He ended up with a massive collection of drawings on scraps of paper, cardboard boxes--anything he could get his hands on to draw. Ultimately the right person took notice of Traylor's work and facilitied Traylor's position among America's most important artists.

My first time learning about him was when my good e-buddy, fellow Austinite and local artist, Don Tate announced that he was publishing his first book as an author instead of an award-winning illustrator. I figured the art in the book would be that of Bill Traylor, but the brilliant R. Gregory Christie had that honor. I am so grateful for this book and the impression it has made on my four year old son. Zack was fascinated that Bill Traylor was a real person. After reading this book, Zack wanted to read even more books about "real people that are dead but were alive in books". So now my four year old is looking for the chilcren's biographies when we visit the bookstore--just in time for Black History month! How cool is that?! The realness of the book is even more special to Zack since he shook Don's hand at the Texas Book Festival last year and got his copy of the book signed.

My son is no artist, but after our first two reads of 'It Jes Happened', which occurred one immediately after the other, my son announced that he would "draw all the pictures from the memories I saved up deep inside myself", as was said repeatedly about Bill Traylor in the book.

This book is a gem. The author is a hero. We are excited to see what he writes next. Learn more about this book and the author here. 

Check out the book trailer: 

Sam-I-Am Is My Homeboy

Green Eggs and Ham is one of my three year old's favorite bedtime reads at the moment. He picks it about three or four nights a week. Each time, I oblige him...even though the book is like a million pages long. It's amazing how many times I can re-read the longet books and re-watch Disney movies without getting too tired of it. I do not necessarily love it, but he enjoys every time like it's the first time, and I do my best to not be a buzz-kill. 

My son is a picky eater. It's a general toddler pickyness born from a limited diet due to food allergies and texture aversion. When I spotted Green Eggs and Ham on the shelf at my favorite kid's resale store, Kid to Kid, I remembered how persistent Sam-I-Am was in wearing down that fuzzy man until he tried those eggs. Figured I could learn some things from Sam...and learn I did. 

A few days ago my son ate half of a chicken thigh, which we celebrated, as we do anytime he actually swallows anything he's had to chew first. I knew I was one step closer to sending him to school with a non-pureed lunch. So I offered him some stewed potatoes. This is how it all went down:

Book Review and Giveaway: Going Down South by Bonnie Glover

This book review has been a long time coming. I met the author online about 3 years ago on MySpace and soon after connected with her on Facebook. After about a year or so, I learned that she had been featured in Essence Magazine. So of course I googled her ('cause I'm nosy curious like that) and found out that she has received some impressive acclaim for her novels, Going Down South and Middle Sister. So I emailed her to congratulate her for all of her success, yada yada yada. I'm reviewing it today, a few months later than I had hoped to. Alas, here we are.

I've read Going Down South two and a half times already. After the first time, I hugged it. Remember the last time I hugged a book? I am a book hugger. But I reserve hugs only for the books that deeply resonate with me. Going Down South easily became one of my favorites. I am a sucker for novels set in the south--add to that a poignant coming of age story, family secrets, black people, forbidden love, racists and a trip back to a time before urban minority neighborhoods were plagued with poverty and violence and there was a healthy dose of shame attached to being pregnant in high school and I am a happy sucker.

Going Down South is a story about book-smart, 15-year old Olivia Jean, her beautiful, proud, sharp-tongued mother Daisy, and Daisy's no-nonsense mother, Birdie. Olivia Jean ends up pregnant (without even really understanding what sex is) and in order to keep Olivia's pregnancy a secret from friends and neighbors, Daisy decides to send her to live out her pregnancy and birth down south with Birdie. When they arrive, Birdie welcomes Olivia Jean, but will only allow her to stay there if Daisy stays too. Since the mother-daughter relationships between these women are far from warm and loving, their time together in the home where Daisy grew up is full of tension, growth and profound revelations.

Book Review: Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood

I hugged this book when I finished reading it. I do that sometimes. I'm a book hugger. Consequently, so is my toddler--hugs his favorite books all the time. Anyway, Black Girl in Paris, had been on my to-read list for years upon years, when I found it, used, on the clearance shelf at Half Price books for $1. I wrote about what I found inside it >>HERE<<--one more thing that made finally reading this book that much more special.

It reads like a memoir. Eden, is a young American girl, who loved books and writing and always knew she wanted to go to Paris, like her idols had, to become a writer. She knew that she was meant to go there and meet James Baldwin and be changed forever, but she had no idea how it would happen, nor what the specific change would be. She was a dreamer. After graduating from college in the 80's, she buys a ticket to Paris. While in Paris, she meets some pretty colorful characters who touch her in many ways, literally and figuratively. When the author describes sexual encounters with men and women Eden meets, she does so in a way that is so poetic and sensual that even the most disturbing encounters don't seem disturbing at all. These encounters are important in telling Eden's story, but this book is NOT about the sex. It's about having a dream and single-mindedly pursuing that dream (unavoidable cliché alert) against all odds.  There where so many reasons why Eden should have never gone to Paris,and times when she should have gone back home, but she was so determined to (another unavoidable cliché alert) achieve her dream that she suffered through some pretty tough times to realize them. The stories of some of the people Eden met ended sadly, but her ending...also her beginning...is uplifting.

So uplifting in fact that it inspired me to do something very French: a bath. In the novel, there is a Turkish bath house, but we don't have those here--and frankly, even if we did, I would stay very-very far away from them. Still, all the talk of steam and heat and relaxation and nudity made me want to participate in my own hot bath soaking action. And what better way to make it feel French, than by adding Rose Bath Powder by L'Occtaine to the bath? What's the point of taking a bath anyway if you're not going to indulge? I digress.

I've never been to Europe, but I would like to. I don't have dreams of going anyplace and walking in anybody's footsteps for inspiration to take my own steps. But, like Eden, I do have dreams. Childhood dreams. And after reading her story, I'm inspired to pursue them with more passion.

Book Review: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I've read this book to my 16 month old son since he was weeks old. It was a gift from my sister. It's been wonderful to watch him fall in love with it. I posted this pic of him handing me the book and asking me to "reat! reat!" in my Daily Photo album back when he was 11 months old. After we had read it for the third or fourth time this morning, he hugged it. My baby hugged a book. It made my heart smile.

It occurred to me how educational The Very Hungry Caterpillar is after had I read through it the first time. It covers a little of everything, science (it follows the morph cycle of caterpillar into butterfly), health and nutrition (it covers healthy food choices, the importance of food for growth and the consequences of overeating), math and sequencing, colors, basic vocabulary--this book is packed with lots of little lessons and has such an exciting ending for little ones. When the caterpillar turns into a butterfly at the end, Zack insists on holding the book and flapping it closed and open to make the butterfly flutter.

And the artwork. Eric Carle's illustrations (in this book and all the others) could not be any more perfect for children...and adults. I resist the urge to frame his pieces and hang them in Zack's play area because if I do, it will become Eric Carle land--which wouldn't be a bad thing, but I want to keep Zack's exposure to art eclectic (but that's another post). I have this book in Spanish too, because it's also a wonderful primer for early Spanish vocabulary building.

This is one of those old classics that I'm positive my great great grandchildren will still be reading. Nothing like the classics. 

Book Review: Please,Baby,Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee

I haven't done book reviews in forever. I've been so busy being a stay-at-home mom lately and haven't been able to jump back in the reading saddle just yet. Since kid's books are the only ones I'm able to read from cover to cover these days, I've decided to share some of Zack's (my toddler) and my favorites with you.

I wasn't even thinking about having kids when Please, Baby, Please was published, but when I read about it in Essence magazine, it was instantly on the list of books I knew I wanted to get for my little one whenever he or she arrived. It's beautifully illustrated and functions just as well as a look and find book for little ones who enjoy this book before the age of two. Zack is 15 months old and has absolutely loved this book for months now.  When he was about 10 months old, he'd actually crawl over to his bookshelf, find this book saying, "peas, peas, peas", pull it out and hand it to me saying, "Reat! Reat!"  He still does it...walking now instead of crawling. It's the cutest thing ever.

In this book, readers follow a mom with her spirited little toddler throughout a typical day (waking up in the wee hours to play, messy eating, playtime, bathtime and bedtime),as mom pleads with the tot to go to sleep, eat, share, etc., her directions ending with cute variations of the phrase,  "please, baby, please." Zack's favorite part of the book is the end. The last page is mom's answer to the child's question, "Kiss me goodnight?" I really enjoy sharing this book, and that last page with my baby. As if I need any other reason to kiss his cheek. 

It's specified for ages 2-5, but the images in this book are way too sweet not to share with your baby as soon as his eyes can focus.

Book Review: Bungalow 2 by Danielle Steel

Bungalow 2 was ok I guess. The heroine was boring and annoying and the storyline was very predictable. I know Danielle Steel has sold like a crazymillion copies of a huge number of novels in her career, but this one wasn't special at all. I was attracted to the synopsis on the jacket--full time mom/acclaimed writer who gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to write an Oscar-winning movie script as soon as all her kids are in or off to college. The read was a letdown.

The first half of the novel was drawn out and redundant--5 chapters could have been 2. Steel said in a million different ways that the heroine was a perfect wife and mother, perfectly juggling caring for her perfect children and her perfect husband and her perfect writing career. Predictably her perfect husband cheats on her (with her best friend) while she's on set for 9 months in LA and then there are a handful of lovers for her in Hollywood then finally a soul mate. I was bored. At one point I thought the novel was going to get good and actually stayed up reading into the wee hours to experience it, but it was flat.

It feels good to be reading again, and I guess I got my $6.99 worth, but I'm pretty sure this is a first and last for me and Danielle Steel novels. Her novels-turned-tv movies are a whole other thing. I remember looking forward to her Sunday night movies and mini-series when those were in during the late eighties/early nineties before reality shows took over. Even today, I'll put some time in on Lifetime TV to watch her novels come to life. The novels themselves (purely based on this experience), not a fan.

Book Review: Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis

Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis. Her agent sent this book to me a few months ago. I read this over two days while my son napped. For two days, I was watching the clock, just waiting for him to go to sleep so I could read. I was a bit disappointed with the ending only because I wanted to know what happened next, which is of course a good thing, but I really wanted at least another chapter. Flan is a little horny--wanting to kiss everything that breathed--but it's part of what makes the novel so good. She is married with kids, but lonely and looking for human connections in a totally non-sexual, yet slightly sexual ways.  It's strange, but makes sense for the character. A Walt Whitman poem is like her bible and the story is peppered with lines of Whitman prose. In Self Storage there are probably more interesting characters than I've ever seen in one novel. The Afghan woman in a burka is the most intriguing, especially since she has to deal with her impossibly American neighbors in the days after 9/11. I throughly enjoyed this novel. What has stayed with me is Flan's quest to find the thing in life that makes her say "yes" inside. It's inspirational.

Book Review: The Untelling by Tayari Jones

Okay.  So I've had some time to let the effects of having read The Untelling wear off a bit. I feel that I'm ready to talk about it without revealing my soul here. Excuse me if I'm long-winded. This book connected some life-dots for me, so y'all bear with me.

I've never read a novel that caused me to do so much self-reflection that I actually had a breakthrough...like a real life breakthrough...like the kind you could get from therapy or something. Actually, I might feel less weird about this whole thing if I could attribute such a huge life-altering enlightenment to therapy of some kind, but I've never done the therapy thing. Turns out all I needed was a little free time and about 336 pages of awesome fiction.

Everybody experiences things differently, so some of you might read, or have already read the book and be like, "what the hhyyell was HomeGirl smokin?'" I believe that every life experience is there to teach us something...every wack azz job, every wack azz family situation, every wack azz male of female who might disturb your peace, even your own wack azz ways...all there to bring lessons. Whether you get the lesson instantly, or 17 years after the fact, as in my case, hopefully you get it some way, at some point and you grow from it. But enough about me...

The Untelling is the story of Ariadne (not Adrian, that's not a typo), a southern black girl, born, raised and living in Atlanta. At first she's a little girl, brimming with the typical mind-wonderings and innocence of little girls (those are the best years), then she's a college student at Spellman and a post-graduate working girl dealing with life-long family issues, interesting and emotionally taxing job situations  and a relationship with a good man (whom she seems to feel undeserving of) among other, way more serious things. I'm trying not to spoil the experience for any would-be readers, but if y'all want more details about what happens in the story, you can find it <<here>>.

Up to the very end of the book, the layers of each character are still being pulled back revealing more and explaining more about why they are the way they are. The character the reader might be inclined to hate, becomes sympathetic and quite impossible to have anything other than pity and hope for.

Digression: I think there's a quote or something that says, "hate cannot exist where there is knowledge and understanding" or something like that. I totally get that--it's so easy to see someone as a bitch or a bastard or a creep until you learn and understand what unfortunate background or unlucky choices or experiences made them that way. Bitch, bastard or creep they may be, but at least if you understand the root of the wackness, it'd be pretty difficult to have ill feelings towards them. I've always felt that way.

The meaning behind the title, The Untelling, is explained in a narrative by Ariadne at the end. I always look forward to mentions of the title in books I read. "The Untelling" is such an interesting phrase. Before Ariadne's narrative at the end, I felt like maybe Tayari titled the novel The Untelling because the whole back story is not told up front. By the end of the novel when every character has been fully revealed, it's like 'Oooh! Ok. That's what happened, now it all makes sense.' It's like the full story was told backwards. That's a huge part of what made this read so enjoyable.

Tayari Jone's first novel, Leaving Atlanta, is SO on my list. 

 

Book Review: The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank

Thanks, God's Child, for recommending this book. I hope to see you back in blogland soon, girl.

The whole time I was reading The Wonder Spot I felt like I was reading about little pieces of me only from, like, a strange parallel universe where instead of being a black girl with a religious upbringing in the south and strange but sensible insecurities, I was a Jewish girl with a religious upbringing in the northeast. Sophie Applebaum's thoughts and insecurities and experiences at different stages in her life are so similar to mine. In a way, this novel has assured me that I'm not such a weird bird after all. This was the first time I've read a novel and really identified with a character so closely.

The Wonder Spot is a refreshing novel following the journey of a young girl into adulthood. It's realistic and honest. The friendships and relationships (romantic, platonic and familial) are all wonderfully crafted and all seem strangely familiar.

This would be a really-really good movie. Adult Sophie is SO Janeane Garofalo.

A friend of mine wrote that she gages how good a book is by how eager she is to read more works from the author, which is a pretty good measure. The Wonder Spot is awesome, and Melissa Bank's first novel, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, is officially on my must read list.

Book Review: The Hamptons by Linda Dominique Grosvenor

After weeks of starting and stopping the first few pages of The Hamptons (due to random distractions and general brainfoggedness) by Ms. Linda Dominique Grosvenor aka PrincessDominique, I finally got a chance to read the whole work during my flight to Puerto Rico. The whole thing took all of 2 hours to blow through, partly because it's a relatively short novel (I had to check to make sure it wasn't a novella) and partly because it was very hard to put down...once I got to chapter 3, which for me, is where things get interesting.

This novel has everything: mystery, romance, betrayal, sex, a little taste of horror, a jewelry heist, unexpected twists and turns leading up to the climactic ending, all set in the rich folk's playground--The Hamptons. It reads like a really good Lifetime movie (beautiful woman married to rich man is betrayed and divorced, moves to a new place to regroup and start over, lands an awesome job, meets an awesome rich man, finally finds happiness and suddenly things aren't what they seem) or more fitting maybe, since the characters are all black, a BET Arabesque film.

The Hamptons was hard to find though. Barnes and Noble carries it, but neither of the ones I went to had a copy on hand. I ended up having to order an Amazon.com copy, which I think was a pre-mass-market print, because there were so many typos and grammatical errors. I've read that Linda's a NYT bestselling author, so I'm positive this wasn't a final print.

All in all, very entertaining and enjoyable novel. Perfect for airport/travel reading.

Book Review: Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is a little scary

Running With Scissors is not scary in the horror movie sense, but scary in the horrifying sense. This is book two in my "branching out of Black chick lit" venture.  I didn't realize it was the true story of the author's childhood until I got the book and read the jacket. It reads like straight fiction. I'm halfway through the book and all I can say is poor kid. I know he's a best-selling author now, but he's lucky to have survived his childhood. If writing really is cathartic, I can definitely see why he needed to pen these memoirs. He's really funny...the book is a great read. It's a page-turner, but I'm turning pages with one eye shut, preparing myself for the next weird, unfortunate event in this poor kids life.

The movie version will be out in the Fall...It could easily be seen as a dark depressing drama or dark disturbing comedy. Either way, I'm sure I'll give it a look-see.

Book Review: The Icarus Girl by Helene Oeyeyemi is a big (very creepy) tease

I didn't go to sleep last night. I got into bed and attempted to read my chapter or two of The Icarus Girl and ended up reading until I was done...at 5 o'clock in the morning! Every time I finished one chapter, I had to read the next and then the next. But nothing ever happened...other than extreme creepiness due to the main character, 8 year old Jess's evil-creepy alter ego/spirit/imaginary friend of the same age. I had way too many questions when this story was done. I mean, I like it when the story kind of stays with you at the end and gives you things to think about, but this story just seems unfinished. Like the author got tired after the first half and neglected to revisit characters and events that were developed and foreshadowed earlier. Actually, I think the foreshadowing was all in my head...part of my need to know more...my refusal to believe that there wasn't more to be told of certain events later. I expected to learn so much in the second half of the book. Like I said, I stayed up all night to find out. All night. And nothing. Maybe it's Helen Oyeyemi's age (19 when she wrote it) or my inability to read and understand her kind of storytelling. Whatever the case, I did not love this book. I wanted to SO badly. I think it's worthy of a re-read...in a year or so. Maybe it was me. I'm willing to give it another chance just to be sure.

This review was also posted in reply on Literati Dominicus.

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha by Author Golden

This book was on my list ever since Oprah gave it her stamp a few years ago. When I began to see the trailers and posters for the movie, I decided to finally read it. The books I read are usually written by Black female authors. I've wanted to diversify my reading for a while and after reading The Secret Life of Bees and now Memoirs of a Geisha, I'm more convinced I'd like to branch out. Both books are narrated by young girls, white and Japanese respectively. A number of the thoughts and feelings expressed by both girls, I recalled thinking and feeling as a young girl myself. Both authors did an amazing job giving a voice to the universal young girl, no matter what race. I was most impressed with Author Golden's work because he's male, white, and American, yet the way he treated the voice of this Japanese peasant girl-turned geisha is so...authentic.

Confession: I usually skip the foreword and acknowledgments in novels I read, but I'm SO glad I read them in this one. They're very necessary and make reading the book such a complete delight. I actually exhaled when it was done.

Every moment I was reading this book, I was drawn into the world of this blue-grey eyed Japanese girl. I remember trying to explain to a friend how this book drew me in: When I was reading the book, I was IN it. When I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about it. The imagery is SO vivid. The scenery and objects and people are described so well that I almost feel like I've been to Yoroido and Kyoto, Japan, and have smelled the smells and seen everything Sayuri, the geisha, has seen, and like I know so much about the training and work of geisha...is that weird? I guess not. That's the whole point of fiction right? To give you an "elsewhere" experience?

The storytelling is poetic. It was a wonderful reading experience. It was beautiful. I can only imagine what the movie experience will be like. I can't wait to see what they've done with this novel. As beautifully as the pictures were painted in the pages of the novel, they definitely had a challenge before them. I'm looking forward to seeing this story in motion.

I'm having my stitches removed on opening day, so I hope I'm in good enough shape to see the movie at some point during opening weekend.