The Help

The book I am currently reading is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. So far I really like the book. The story is based in 1962 to in the Deep South where there is segregation. They story is told from different perspectives from two African American maids to their full of themselves white employers to the one woman who thinks she can make a change. Aibileen is raising her 17^th white child.  Her current child is Mae Mobley, Elizabeth Leefolt's little girl. One day during bridge club the topic of the Africans Americans have “dirty diseases” and how "the help" should have different bathrooms. Miss Skeeter comes to the kitchen later and asks what Aibileen thinks of the bathroom situation. Later when Miss Skeeter gets a job as the writer of the house-cleaning column at the local newspaper she turns to Aibileen for help. As time goes on Aibileen and Skeeter get more comfortable together and things that are usually kept private between African Americans and white people, slip out. So when Skeeter gets an approval to try and write a story about “the help” for a job she has applied for in New York Aibileen actually thinks about letting herself be interviewed. This is a quick summary of what I have read so far in The Help.

The fact that Aibileen actually thought about letting Skeeter interview her is a big deal because if people found out Aibileen and Skeeter would be in so much trouble. This is because a story like this had never been published and also they are in the Deep South where there were very thick lines of what’s ok and what’s not. This is why it would be so brave of Aibileen do even consider much less saying yes.

So far I really like this book and I recommend it to 12 and up because of the topic of segregation. I am only a little ways into the book and I already really like it. I think this book can only get better.