Denene Millner

Very disappointed this isn't a little girl version of the lyrics to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme. It's perfectly fine how it is, but I wish it went like this:

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there,
I'll tell you how I became PRINCESS of a town called Bel Air.

I mean, don't you want that book?! I certainly do. I'd been looking forward to this and I feel a little cheated.

Instead of moving out of West Philadelphia, our Fresh Princess Destiny (nice name!) is moving to West Philadelphia. She is not ultra-confident like young Will Smith on TV. She's worried about not being as good at double Dutch as her new neighbors. But her sister and her dad (note: she doesn't live with her Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv) help her through. She discovers having fun with new friends is the freshest thing of all.

Overall this is a sweet picture book with only a very slight connection to Will Smith's TV show, despite his name being on the cover. I feel robbed, but I'm over it.… (more)

The author's personal history (abandoned on the steps of an orphanage when she was a baby, the 'miracle' of being adopted into a loving family, although not knowing it wasn't her birth family until, aged twelve, she came across her adoption certificate whilst 'snooping') shape and drive this at times harrowing, but always intensely moving and thought-provoking story. As is the case for so many women who have been adopted, it wasn't until she became pregnant and was being asked questions about her familial health that she realised that, not knowing anything about her blood-family, these were questions she would never have the answers to. In her acknowledgments she shares that it was her subsequent 'meditations on miracles, adoption, motherhood, Blackness, Black womanhood, choices and blood' which led her to write this novel in order to explore these issues and to give a contextual voice to mothers who feel forced to abandon their babies.
Although it is, of course, impossible to actually walk the proverbial mile in another person's shoes, I found that the author's powerful, intensely evocative and frequently poetic prose quickly drew me into the inner lives of her empathically-portrayed three main female characters (birth mother Grace, adoptive mother Lolo and Rae, the daughter who is the link between them), enabling me to gain at least some insights into the challenges and dilemmas they faced in their lives. The storyline spans the tumultuous decades between the 1960s and the early twenty-first century, allowing reflection on both the huge cultural changes which have taken place, as well as the racial inequality which still exists. Rather depressingly, the themes explored were not unfamiliar (racism, bigotry, exploitation, patriarchy, misogyny, cycles of sexual and physical abuse, the influence of nature v nurture, to name just a few) but the visceral quality of the author's writing made it impossible to look away from the effects of these on the characters' lives, relationships and sense of identity, making this an at times deeply-disturbing story to read. However, to off-set this, it is also a story about the power of love and the importance of feeling secure in our identity.… (more)