The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
★★★★★
Summary
Miss Skeeter
is an independent thinking, Ole’ Miss college graduate. She is a reporter and wanted to do more
than write a help column for people looking for cleaning advice. Skeeter decides to secretly write a book
about “the Help”, black women working for white women, in the 1960’s, in the
south.
Aibileen and
Minny are two of the women who tell their stories and help Miss Skeeter write
the book in private. The stories
range from daily cleaning and childcare to the once in a lifetime stories you
just have to read about. The
friendship that develops between these women is unconventional for the time,
but has a great sincerity from all participants.
Review
The
craftsmanship is great, and the voice and dialect changes when the story is
told from the perspective of Minny, Aibileen or Miss Skeeter. This is a fictional book, inspired by
the author’s personal experiences and research, but each piece of the story
could have been true on it’s own.
This is a humorous
book that made me laugh out loud on several occasions. The book tells it how it was, with a
constant leaning toward the better times to come. While this book was probably not written for school aged
children, I believe that middle school and high school students would get a lot
out of reading this book. It puts
the Civil Rights movement in a much more relatable light than the Martin Luther
King Jr. Day activities that are usually observed in schools.
Author Website
I did not
find her website very helpful, there were a few “no brainer” discussion
questions, but mostly it served as a promotional tool.
Technical
Stuff
Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Trade; Mti Rei edition (June 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0425245136
ISBN-13: 978-0425245132
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars
