The Help by Kathryn Stockett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pitch perfect! It struck just the right balance between storytelling and message. Stockett doesn’t sugarcoat the racism of the time period in Jackson, Mississippi, but in The Help she finds a way to address it without creating a depressing book. In fact, she stirs in just the right amount of humor, drama, friendship, and hope. Change is often slow in coming, but it can come when people take a stand and face their fears. Skeeter, Minny, and Aibileen make an unlikely trio of heroines, but they take a big chance and help to bring some positive changes to their community and to their own lives. This book touched on all of my emotions at various times. Sometimes I laughed out loud; other times I wanted to cry. There were things that happened that made me furious and other things that gave me hope. Basically, it was awesome storytelling with a compelling message, and it doesn’t get much better than that. I hope the movie does it justice.
(I downloaded this from the library and read it on my NOOK. Awesome!)
Enter the sweepstakes for movie tickets to see THE HELP: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/thehelp/sweepstakes.php
Allie says
I just read a commentary on The Help written by Martha Southgate. It really made me think about the message of the book in a different light. Maybe it wasn’t so pitch perfect after all.
http://www.algonquinbooksblog.com/blog/the-truth-about-the-civil-rights-era-martha-southgate-on-the-help/