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Laila Ibrahim

Author of Yellow Crocus

7 Works 1,361 Members 91 Reviews

Series

Works by Laila Ibrahim

Yellow Crocus (2010) 812 copies
Paper Wife (2018) 187 copies
Mustard Seed (2017) 151 copies
Golden Poppies (2020) 126 copies
Scarlet Carnation (2022) 71 copies
Living Right (2016) 13 copies

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Common Knowledge

Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Places of residence
Whittier, California
Oakland, California
Berkeley, California, USA
Education
Mills College
Occupations
founder of Woolsey Children's School
director Children and Family Ministries, UU
birth doula
Relationships
Rinda (wife)
Short biography
Laila Ibrahim spent much of her career as a preschool director, and that, coupled with her experiences as a teacher and her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, provided ample fodder for the story of Mattie and Lisbeth in Yellow Crocus. In addition to being a writer, Laila is a birth doula and Director of Children and Family Ministries at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. She lives in a small co-housing community in Berkeley, CA, with her wife, Rinda, and two daughters. She is hard at work on her second novel.

Members

Reviews

Enjoyable story

Endearing characters, so glad she was able to escape and have the life she wanted, looking forward to book two.
 
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AnneMarie2463 | 56 other reviews | Mar 31, 2023 |
This book is a heartwarming story about the daughter of a slave holding family in the South and one of the slaves in her household who nurses her from infancy. It was a very fast, very easy, enjoyable read, but I definitely felt like I was reading a book aimed at young adults (even though it isn't marketed that way). It's written very simplistically, and oddly, for a story about slavery, everything seems to end on a positive note. In some ways, that was refreshing, but it also seemed a little odd and unrealistic for a book about slavery to be so "happily ever after". Nonetheless, the storytelling was good, it had some good moral lessons, and I never felt like putting the book down, so I think it deserves more than three stars.

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Anita_Pomerantz | 56 other reviews | Mar 23, 2023 |
Golden Poppies (referring to the California state flower) is a historical fiction book that takes place in Oakland, CA, in the 1860s. I didn't know this book was part of a series, but it was good on its own. It follows the lives of several families of different color that are intertwined by blood, trying to make a better life for themselves after the end of the Civil War. I found the characters likable and the story heartfelt and entertaining.
 
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PaulaGalvan | 2 other reviews | Feb 3, 2023 |
Paper Wife by Laila Ibrahim was an interesting story filled with conflict and family ties. Mei Ling is the second daughter of a poor family in China. The matchmaker has pledged her older sister to a merchant from the United States, but when her sister falls ill, Mei Ling is substituted as the bride. She must now travel to the United States with this man who she doesn’t know or fully trust. First off, she learns that he has been married before and that she is now the mother of a two year old boy. Due to the tight immigration laws, she must travel as the first wife and pass this little boy off as her own child.

On her voyage to San Francisco, she meets and becomes life-long friends with June, a Chinese woman who is travelling back to the States after visiting her family. She also meets a little six year old girl who she takes under her wing and cares for. Once in the States she must conquer many things, the language and customs are so different and confusing. As she learns more about the man she married, she learns to trust and, indeed, to love him. Together they vow to rescue the little girl from the ship who is facing a life of enforced slavery and prostitution.

I thought the book was well written, well researched and I enjoyed the story and the characters. I have read this author before and will certainly do so again. The immigration laws and the exploitation of new immigrants made for an intriguing story and, sadly, this topic is still current in today’s world. A sign of a good book is that the reader wishes that it had been longer, and I certainly felt that with Paper Wife.
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DeltaQueen50 | 13 other reviews | Jan 19, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Bahni Turpin Narrator

Statistics

Works
7
Members
1,361
Popularity
#18,892
Rating
4.0
Reviews
91
ISBNs
40
Languages
5

Charts & Graphs