What I Just Finished: The Help

I know; I know. I'm behind. The Help has been on my reading list for ages.


I saw the movie in theaters; it was brilliant. I laughed and cried and all that jazz.  


The book, as usual, was better.  


Stockett is honest and genuine and poignantly describes with incredible accuracy the trouble with two races living in one south during the Civil Rights Movement. She outlines the cycle of black women raising white children and then becoming maids to those same children.  She highlights the love the white children have for their caretakers but, in many cases, gradually lose as they grow older and the world's lies masked as the truths of how things are and how things must be  creep into their growing hearts and minds.

I love this book because I teach a brief section on the Civil Rights Movement when we study To Kill a Mockingbird, and this will tie in so well.

I love this book because it's beautifully written.

I love this book because I've felt like Skeeter so many times.  A white girl who notices hypocrisies and isn't quite sure what to do with them.

I love this book because I know these people.  The white people who believe themselves to be entitled and the black people who are fighting to break the cycle of unfairness.

I love this book because at its heart and soul it's true.

I love this book because I want my children to understand the importance of colorblindness because, until we rise up and vehemently declare NO, there is always a danger of history repeating itself.

I love this book because I want the people I know to change.

I love this book because I want the world to change.

I hope you'll love it to,