Book Recommendation

Dear 11th grade students,

I am writing to recommend you read Mama Day by Gloria Naylor and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I read both of these books for classes as a students at Chico State, but I wish I had been introduced to them in high school.

The book Mama Day follows the story of Mama Day, an older woman living in a small town called Willow Springs. Mama Day is a spiritual woman who can perform magical and mysterious tasks, like bringing about lightening storms. The novel also focuses on Mama Day’s great-nice, who goes by the nicknames of Cocoa and Baby Girl. Cocoa is the only character to have left Willow Springs in search of a big city life. Throughout the story you will read about the magic and odd ways of Mama Day, the love story of strong-willed Cocoa, and the mishaps of the other friends and family of Willow Springs. This story contains powerful point of view shifts, with some of it being told through a third person narrator and some of it being told through Cocoa and her boyfriend George’s conversations, and a sense of magical realism that draws the reader in and always leaves the reader wanting more. It also follows themes of family heritage, women’s changing roles, and African-American race struggles.

The awakening deals with one woman's awakening to the type of life she never thought possible. Edna, a woman and mother, come to discover herself while vacationing with her family one summer. She realizes that she wants to be more than a mother and wife so she moves out on her own and pursues her dream of being an artist. This is a powerful and interesting novel that showcases Edna's journey into becoming the type of independent woman we know today.

These books are so interesting and intriguing, you won’t be able to put them down. I really enjoyed my reading of these books and can’t wait to share them with someone else.

Happy reading,
Susan Beth