Author: Joan Steinau Lester
Where I Got The Book: JKSCommunications
Why I Read It: I received an email from JKSCommunications about reading and reviewing some books. This one interested me the most!
Rating: 4 stars
I was contacted by JKSCommunications to read and review this book, Mama’s Child by Joan
Steinau Lester. As stated on my blog, this is my honest review of the book. As soon as I read what the book was
about, I was instantly interested in reading it.
The book is set in the late 70s around
1978, where a white woman meets a black man, they fall in love and have
children together. In 1978, this was “frowned upon”, and Elizabeth, the mother,
and her husband, Soloman were apart of numerous groups fighting for equal
rights, including the Black Liberation Movement, participating in protest
marches, visiting Black Panthers and trying to show those around them that
interracial couples and children were not wrong, and how black people deserved
to have just as many rights, not be discriminated against, etc. as they had
been. Elizabeth and Soloman have two children, Che and Ruby. These two are
inseperable and love being around each other, and are closer than most brothers
and sisters usually are. As they are growing up, the unthinkable happens and
their family is split apart. Ruby is left with her mother, and Che goes with
his father.
Ruby starts growing up, and is noticing
that her mother is changing into someone she doesn’t even recognize. Elizabeth
is trying too hard. She’s a white woman trying to be black, which embarrasses
Ruby. Ruby watches her best friend, Imani, and her mother Inez, and sees how a
“real” black family should be living, and Ruby starts to resent her mother, and
the way she is treated.
The very first page of this book is a
letter that Ruby writes to her mother, telling her that she no longer wants to
speak to her, and she is moving on with her life. She holds a grudge against
Elizabeth for the way she “raised” her, and for not giving her the real black
culture Ruby needed growing up. Ruby struggled with her own identity for years,
not knowing if she was black, or white. And because of this, and because
Elizabeth did not try harder, Ruby was against everything her mother ever was,
or wasn’t.
This book was great. I found myself not
being able to put it down. It kept getting my attention more and more, and what
I liked most about it, was that I felt like the characters were real. Some
authors have a hard time bringing their characters to life, but Joan had no
problem with that at all.
The book alternates between Elizabeth
(Lizzie’s) point of view and Ruby’s. I like books like this, because it keeps a
clear understanding of what the story line is saying, and what it is going
after. With that said, I found myself going back and forth between who I was
routing for. Did I want Ruby to stop being selfish and change the relationship
with her Mom? Or did I agree with Ruby, and that it was all of her Mother’s
fault? I can honestly say that I kept getting equally angry at Ruby and her
mother. Throughout the entire book, I kept saying, “Come on! You two can get
through this! Your family!” And when a book makes you pull for its characters,
then it is definitely a good book.
There were a few things that I did not
necessarily enjoy about the book, but they weren’t anything too dramatic that
would cause me to never read the book again. A few times it jumped to something
absolutely random. I won’t say what, because I don’t want to give the book
away, but I could have done without one of them, simply because it was so
random. Then there was one other part towards the end of the book where it kind
of jumped from when Ruby was still young, to when she was graduated and moved
out of her mother’s home. This confused me because there wasn’t really a intro
into that next event. Nonetheless though, neither of this these things ruined
the book.
I enjoyed this book so much, that not
only would I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book based on finding
ones identity, racial profiling/background, and young adult, but I think this
would be a great book to have in a college classroom, or even a high school
class room where they could read it, and discuss it for class.
So, without further ado, I give this
book:
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**I would like to thank everyone at
JSKCommunications for allowing me to read and review the book suggestions that
they send me. I would also like to thank Joan Steinau Lester and everyone on
her team for allowing me to read her book and do the review.
