72 hour hold: a novel
by Bebe Moore Campbell

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

Fed up with the mental health community and desperate to save her daughter, who is suffering from bipolar disorder, Keri enlists the assistance of the Program, an illegal group of radicals who have rejected the established psychiatric system.


New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 2005, 336 p

Booklist Review: Keri’s beautiful 18-year-old daughter, Trina, has been accepted by Brown University, but she will be able to attend only if she can stabilize her recently diagnosed bipolar disorder. As Trina grows increasingly abusive, both verbally and physically, and substitutes illegal drugs for prescribed medications, Keri struggles to manage her expectations of Trina’s prospects. When Trina starts to waver between being a sweet-faced, loving child and a ranting, raving, promiscuous provocateur, Keri’s desperation heightens as she longs for the 72-hour hold in a psychiatric ward that will give her time to plot a strategy. Then Keri learns about an underground group that practices radical techniques to help the mentally ill. Keri embarks on a wild and frantic journey that she likens to the Underground Railroad and sees parallels between her own efforts to free herself and Trina from the bonds of mental illness and those of runaway slaves. Campbell is masterful at evoking black Los Angeles and creating strong characters. She bravely confronts a taboo issue in the black community, presenting the anguishing issues of mental illness from the perspective of a resilient and determined mother.
-- Vanessa Bush (BookList, 04-01-2005, p1324)

Publishers Weekly Review: /* Starred Review */ This powerful story of a mother trying to cope with her daughter's bipolar disorder reads at times like a heightened procedural. Keri, the owner of an upscale L.A. resale clothing shop, is hopeful as daughter Trina celebrates her 18th birthday and begins a successful-seeming new treatment. But as Trina relapses into mania, both their worlds spiral out of control. An ex-husband who refuses to believe their daughter is really sick, the stigmas of mental illness in the black community, a byzantine medico-insurance system???all make Keri increasingly desperate as Trina deteriorates (requiring, repeatedly, a "72 hour hold" in the hospital against her will). The ins and outs of working the mental health system take up a lot of space, but Moore Campbell is terrific at describing the different emotional gradations produced by each new circle of hell. There's a lesbian subplot, and a radical (and expensive) group that offers treatment off the grid may hold promise. The author of a well-reviewed children's book on how to cope with a parent's mental illness, Moore Campbell (What You Owe Me) is on familiar ground; she gives Keri's actions and decisions compelling depth and detail, and makes Trina's illness palpable. While this feels at times like a mission-driven book, it draws on all of Moore Campbell's nuance and style. 100,000 first printing; 17-city author tour. (July 5) --Staff (Reviewed May 23, 2005) (Publishers Weekly, vol 252, issue 21, p56)

Library Journal Review: /* Starred Review */ In her fifth novel, Campbell (Singing in the Comeback Choir) confronts the heavyweight issues of mental illness, race relations, and family relationships. Keri Whitmore hangs onto the hope that her daughter, Trina, who was about to enter Brown University, will overcome her bipolar disorder and become her lovely, promising child again. But part of Keri's struggle is realizing that mental illness can only be managed, never eradicated. The metaphor of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad appears throughout, an apt image for Keri and Trina as they try to flee both physically and mentally from the slavery of mental illness. Flights of insanity and chaos are grounded in fresh descriptions of everyday life in Los Angeles, where Keri runs her own resale designer-clothing store, attends support group meetings, and deals with her actor boyfriend, alcoholic mother, and conservative ex-husband. There is a lot going on here, but Campbell deftly weaves the threads of Keri's life to form a rich and compelling tapestry that illustrates the tension between a woman's love for her child and her own need to have a fulfilling life. Recommended for all popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/05.]???Joy Humphrey, Pepperdine Univ. Law Lib., Malibu, CA --Joy Humphrey (Reviewed May 1, 2005) (Library Journal, vol 130, issue 8, p70)

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ Campbell's provocative fourth novel explores our culture's treatment of mental illness through the story of one mother's desperate attempts to save her manic-depressive teenaged daughter.

Keri is the owner of a successful Los Angeles designer clothing resale shop. Her daughter Trina, headed to Brown on a National Merit scholarship, is diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 17 and put on medication. But Trina rebels against her mother's rules, experiments with alcohol and marijuana, and won't take her meds. Without them, she doesn't sleep for days, becomes violent when her mother tries to restrain her, and runs away. When she turns 18, she can no longer be signed into the hospital for involuntary care. To protect her daughter, Keri calls the police. If they judge that Trina is a danger to herself or others, or is seriously disabled, she can be held against her will in a hospital's mental ward for 72 hours. Each time this happens, Keri tries to get the hospital to extend the period so the medication that keeps Trina's disorder under control can become effective, but usually she's released at this point and goes back to her cycle of mania and depression. Meanwhile, the likable Keri has ongoing relationships with Orlando, an actor; his son, who trusts her enough to tell her he is gay before he is able to tell his parents; a support group for the loved ones of people with mental illnesses, and an ex-husband who puts work before family concerns and refuses to believe his daughter is ill. Through another suffering mother, Keri learns about an underground group of psychiatrists who "kidnap" patients like Trina, give them intensive therapy and save them from the most damaging effects of mental illness. Using Underground Railroad metaphors, Campbell describes Keri's decision to make such an "intervention" and shows, through various twists and turns, how Keri and Trina change their lives.

Campbell (What You Owe Me, 2001, etc.)transforms one mother's heartbreaking dilemma into a compassionate and suspenseful story that reverberates long after the final chapter is over.
(Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2005)



Features about this author or title:

1. Book Discussion Guide - 72 Hour Hold


Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other titles associated with this book:
Seventy-two hour hold


ISBNs Associated with this Title:
1400040744
1400033616 : Paperback
0739320769 : CD - Audio
0739320750 : Cassette - Audio
0786279451 : Hardcover - Large Print


Credits:
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20050520
• TID: 133649

Brothers and sisters

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

Struggling with her own personal issues after the Los Angeles riots, Esther Jackson, a Black employee at a downtown bank, is heartened when a Black man is hired as senior vice-president, until he sexually harasses her white friend and coworker


New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, copyright 1994, 476 p.


Booklist Review: /*STARRED REVIEW*/ Campbell's last novel, "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" (1992), set the critics raving, and her second will do the same, especially since it examines the deep roots of the rage that ignited the L.A. riots and the high-octane, long-lasting emotions that continue to surge in their aftermath. Campbell has shrewdly chosen a bank as her stage, a downtown bank in the grip of a power struggle emerging under the banner of political correctness. Amid this turmoil, two ambitious women executives struggle to cross the great racial divide and become friends. Esther is black, determined, and cued to the realities of the marketplace. Mallory is white, uncertain, and appallingly naive. But she is also kind, lonely, and loving, while Esther can be cold and judgmental. As Campbell dramatizes the daunting paradoxes Esther and Mallory face in their careers and love lives, she illuminates a host of issues connected to race, culture, romance, and finance. She also brilliantly interprets all the shades of meaning inherent in the concept of "brothers and sisters." For African Americans, it's an expression of racial solidarity, but it can lead to questionable obligations and subtle forms of coercion. Brothers and sisters can also imply blind loyalty to one's gender, but ultimately, the terms suggest that, at heart, we are all family, however dysfunctional. Campbell is a keen and candid social critic, and a masterful storyteller. ((Reviewed June 1994)) -- Donna Seaman

Publishers Weekly Review: Further demonstrating the authoritative grasp of racial issues and the candid picture of African American life she brought to her first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine , Campbell sets this story in Los Angeles during the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, the acquittal of the charged policemen and the subsequent riots. Her heroine, Esther Jackson--seemingly self-confident but quiveringly intense--has a good position as regional operations manager of a bank. Raised on Chicago's South Side, Esther has glass-ceilinged her way to a two-bedroom house in an L.A. suburb. But along with her success, Esther carries the contradictory burdens of compromise, determination and humiliation required of women of color who move up the corporate ladder. Campbell develops Esther's character by depicting her relationship with Tyrone, a man educationally, socially and economically "beneath" her; her growing friendship with white loan officer Mallory Post; the accusations surrounding her African American boss Humphrey's attempted rape of Mallory; the suspicions that her hiree, La Keesha, is stealing from inactive accounts at the bank. Esther learns about watching her own back while responding to the needs and realities of her friends' lives. Campbell's intriguing (if not always three-dimensional) cast of characters reveal the fears and hopes of people caught in a web of shrinking opportunities and institutionalized stereotypes of race, class and gender. Adroitly using the great racial divide of Los Angeles, this absorbing novel explores the intricacies of experience, knowledge and bias which perpetuate inequalities and segregated lives. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; first serial to Essence; audio rights to Audio Renaissance; BOMC and QPB main selections; author tour. (Sept.)

Kirkus Reviews /* Starred Review */ With this daring and insightful novel Campbell requites the unfulfilled promise of her first book, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1992). The setting is Los Angeles in the weeks and months following the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing riots. Esther, operations manager of Angel City National Bank, is a token black in middle management at an institution blind to its own racism. Mallory is a white woman in a lending position that Esther aspires to. When the bank president hires a black supervisor, Humphrey Boone, the atmosphere changes: Some whites get demoted, some minorities have a chance to rise. In this newly open atmosphere, Esther and Mallory become friends. Their relationship begins with a shared experience of sexual harassment and almost ends when Mallory is coerced into bringing about Humphrey's downfall. Both women have growing to do. Mallory has not "done her work" (confronted her racism), but Esther educates her. Esther's motto is "no romance without finance" (she won't date anyone who doesn't make twice what she does), but blue-collar Tyrone manages to overcome her classism. Campbell's LA is an oppressive jungle in which lifethreatening violence can erupt anytime, anywhere, from cops or gangbangers. In this world any tender moment is precious, whether it's a laugh shared with a co-worker, an exchange of ethnic food at lunchtime, or dancing all night with the man you love...even if his English isn't perfect. Campbell's in-depth treatment of two women's friendship across the color bar is both guide and challenge. What might have been a slick set of taps on America's guilt buttons turns instead into a well-knit collection of morality tales for the 21st century.
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1994)



Other related features:

1. Author Read-Alike - Diane McKinney-Whetstone

2. Awards (Best Fiction) - Young Adult -> Best Fiction -> Literary -> School Library Journal's Adult Books for High School Students -> 1995


Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other titles associated with this book:
Sisters and brothers


ISBNs Associated with this Title:
039913929X
0425149404 : Paperback - Mass Market
0425172678 : Paperback
1559273038 : Cassette - Audio
1568952112 : Hardcover - Large Print
0613212592 : Glued Binding
0606192956 : DEMCO Turtleback


Credits:
• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 001215

Singing in the comeback choir

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

A successful producer tries to revitalize the ghetto of her youth


New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, copyright 1998, 372 p.


Booklist Review: /*Starred Review*/ Campbell has a powerful social conscience and uses her great gifts as a writer to get inside so-called issues, attaching them firmly to life. In Brothers and Sisters (1994), she dramatized the pain and rage that fueled the L.A. riots. Here, in a novel that flows as naturally and inconspicuously as breath, Campbell has created an Everywoman to embody the conflicts and challenges faced by professional African American women, and, by extension, everyone trying to keep open the bridge between their past and present. Maxine, the executive producer for a television talk show, was raised by her magnificent grandmother, Lindy Walker--a knock-em-dead jazz singer who took to nursing to support her orphaned grandchild and make sure that Maxine received the education she needed to work her way out of their poor but close-knit Philadelphia neighborhood. Maxine appears to have made it, to be living the dream life, but show business is a shark-filled realm, and Maxine's job security rises and falls with the show's ratings. As if that isn't stressful enough, she and her husband are coping with a tricky emotional brew--joy over her pregnancy and pain over his infidelity--a balancing act further complicated by Maxine's worry over Lindy, who refuses to leave the old, now rundown and dangerous neighborhood or give up her party-hearty habits. As her heroine juggles these clashing demands, Campbell trains the spotlight on one bruised but indomitable character after another, creating enveloping scenes of supple humor, expansive spirit, and extraordinary warmth. Campbell is the literary equivalent of the jazz singers she so reveres: her voice is soft and caressing, but it packs quite a punch, and there won't be a dry eye in the house. ((Reviewed December 15, 1997)) -- Donna Seaman

School Library Journal Review: YA-Maxine McCoy is a successful television producer in L.A., but half of her heart is back on Sutherland Street in a decaying section of Philadelphia. There, her grandmother Lindy, a former blues singer, has recovered from a small stroke but, against doctor's orders, is drinking and smoking far too much. Maxine's TV show is slipping in the ratings, but she finds time for a trip to Philly to check on Lindy, who raised her, and needs help, even if she won't admit it. Maxine needs help too; her husband has had a brief affair that destroyed her trust in him. She is pregnant and, after one miscarriage, is afraid for her good fortune. Lindy is depressed and bored, and when she is invited to sing in a music festival, she is both elated and fearful. A trio of unforgettable musicians help her get ready for her last performance. This is Maxine's story, the story of a black woman who has made it big but hasn't forgotten her roots, or let success overshadow her loving, caring nature. It is also Lindy's story; she yearns for one more chance, but finally realizes she needs help, and accepts it. The minor characters are also drawn with compassion and humor. YAs will find dynamic role models in these strong, black women and the men who love them.-Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA

Publishers Weekly Review: A sheen of emotional slickness prevents Campbell's disappointing third novel from achieving the resonance of her earlier work (Brothers and Sisters; Your Blues Ain't Like Mine). Two women struggle to overcome betrayal. Professionally successful and newly pregnant, Maxine McCoy, an African American TV producer, tries to regain marital trust after her husband's brief infidelity. During a sweeps period that will determine her talk show's future, Maxine leaves L.A. and returns to North Philadelphia to attend to Malindy Walker, the grandmother who raised her. Once a moderately famous club singer, Lindy is depressed and rebellious after a recent mild stroke; she also continues to nurse deep resentment for the manager who swindled her. An invitation to sing at an important music festival seems just the stimulus Lindy needs, yet she refuses either to participate or to move out of her declining neighborhood despite Maxine's repeated urging to do both. Just as a small accidental house fire shakes Lindy from her emotional paralysis, Maxine must leave Lindy on her own when she returns to her job. Amid professional havoc and personal doubts, a chance encounter with a former student helps Maxine discover inner peace, which she uses to help herself and Lindy leave the past behind and move happily forward. Campbell does a nice job of drawing the intriguing complexities of Maxine and Lindy's relationship, but the subtlety that distinguishes the best passages is markedly absent from most of the book, which is undermined by broad characterizations and an implausibly neat conclusion. First serial to Essence; BOMC main selection; author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal Review: At 37, African American Maxine McCoy's plate is full. She's newly pregnant and fearful of another miscarriage, trying to rebuild trust in her unfaithful but regretful husband and worried about the grandmother who raised her and still lives in a failing north Philadelphia neighborhood after suffering a small stroke. As executive producer of a television talk show, Maxine has nurtured the host and raised ratings, but cancellation looms and the pending sweeps are critical. Then her grandmother's paid companion leaves, and Maxine goes to her beloved grandma, once a renowned singer who's lost both her zest for living and her singing voice. Struggling to meet all her commitments, Maxine is torn between her mentor's admonition to follow the money and her growing desire to follow her heart. In her third novel, Campbell (Brothers and Sisters, LJ 8/94) dwells less on racial issues than on human problems, particularly those faced by modern women working outside the home. Campbell tells a fine feel-good story, and her audience is bound to embrace it. [BOMC Main selection; Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/97.]--Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.

Kirkus Reviews Campbell (Brothers and Sisters, 1994, etc.) continues her thoughtful exploration of contemporary black life, this time featuring a female TV producer tom between her upwardly mobile L.A. existence and the crumbling Philadelphia neighborhood where she grew up. Maxine McCoy, married, pregnant, and the executive producer of the high-profile Ted Graham Show, has to juggle her talk show responsibilities with caretaking, at long-distance, her aging grandmother, the once well-known singer Lindy Walker. When Maxine gets word that Pearl, the friend who's been watching over Lindy since the old woman's mild stroke, is going back south, Maxine has to take off during sweeps week, risking the displeasure of her colleagues, to tend to her grandmother in Philadelphia. Her first impulse is to move Lindy into an assisted-living center. But Lindy will have nothing to do with it. When Maxine's own mother, Millicent, died, Lindy took Maxine in, eventually giving up her singing career for the financial security of practical nursing. Lindy vowed to do for her granddaughter what she was unable or unwilling to do for her own daughter Millicent. Now, after spending time in her old neighborhood, Maxine realizes that, while drugs and crime have infiltrated Lindy's block, the sense of community has remained intact. And as she struggles to put the elements of her own life into perspective--her feelings about work, about her unpredictable husband, and about prospective motherhood--she discovers the redeeming quality of community involvement and the healing that comes from a sense of purpose. Lindy's own salvation ultimately comes from getting back in touch with her music, whence the novel's title. Rich and fluid storytelling, peopled with believably illuminating characters.
(Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 1998)



Other related features:

1. Annotated Book List - Popular African-American Fiction


Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other titles associated with this book:
Singin' in the comeback choir
Comeback choir singing., The


ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0399142983
0425166627 : Paperback - Mass Market
1559275006 : Cassette - Audio
1568956134 : Hardcover - Large Print
0606193022 : DEMCO Turtleback
0613175123 : Glued Binding


Credits:
• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 001216

Sometimes my mommy gets angry
Bebe Moore Campbell ; illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

A little girl learns coping skills with the help of her grandmother, neighbors and school friends, when her mother's mental illness disrupts her daily routine.


New York, NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons, c2003, 1 v. (unpaged)

Booklist Review: PreS-Gr. 2. True to a child’s viewpoint, this moving picture book tells of an African American girl living with a mother who is mentally ill. The spare first-person narrative and exquisite realistic watercolor paintings show the child at home with her unpredictable parent, who is manic and cheerful in the morning, then angry, depressed, and paranoid when the child returns from school. Annie has fun with her friends and enjoys school, but her insecurity about her mother is always there. When Mommy yells, Annie calls Grandma, who assures her that it isn’t her fault and helps her through the evening. A long introductory note to adults talks about bipolar disorder and the supportive role community can play. The story will prompt discussion among children because it’s honest about how hard it is when a child must act as parent, and about how friends can help. The quiet, intimate last picture shows loving Mommy the next day as she braids Annie’s hair.
-- Hazel Rochman (BookList, 09-15-2003, p244)

School Library Journal Review: Gr 1-3–When Annie wakes up in the morning, her mother is making pancakes and cheerily asking, "Who wants hot, golden circles?" The woman proclaims the breakfast "yummalicious" and Annie's purple dress, "Beautastic." But when the little girl returns home from school, her mother greets her by shouting, "STOP ALL THAT SCREAMING….GET IN THIS HOUSE NOW!" An author's note explains that this is how life can be for a child living with a mentally ill parent. When Annie's mother gets upset, the girl knows that she should call her grandmother, who reassures her and reminds her that her mother loves her, even when she's yelling. The child has the option of going to a neighbor's house and waiting for her grandmother to come for her. In spite of these safety valves, she deals with the situation on her own–getting a snack, snuggling with her teddy bear, and going to bed. Annie realizes that she can't stop the dark clouds inside her mother, but that she can find sunshine in her own mind. Lewis makes excellent use of light and shadow in his watercolors, evoking both the sunny glow of a happy kitchen and the foreboding gloom of a dark porch with equal skill. The multicultural cast is depicted with realistic sensitivity. The author's goal is to offer children resilience by introducing coping strategies and helping them to understand that they are not to blame for their parents' difficulties. A skillful treatment of a troubling subject.–Anna DeWind Walls, Milwaukee Public Library (Reviewed September 1, 2003) (School Library Journal, vol 49, issue 9, p175)

Kirkus Reviews Campbell addresses the frightening and depressing effects a parent's mental illness can have on her child and subtly presents coping strategies for the youngster. Annie describes her morning with her cheery, smiling mother as she makes breakfast and helps her off to school. The girl, however, is also aware that mother isn't always happy and can be nasty, yelling and withdrawing to her bedroom for long periods of time. It's then that Annie must act grown up, make snacks and meals for herself, pick out her clothes, and get herself to school. The child's friends, teacher, and grandmother serve as a support system that offers helpful opportunities to contend with her feelings. Thinking happy thoughts, reading a silly book, and calling on a reliable adult relative are realistic approaches clearly explained in this plotless vignette. Expressive watercolors reflect the various bipolar moods of the mother and Annie's resigned look of troubled concern, counterbalanced by her upbeat playful disposition. Carefully designed to lend subtle support to families and counselors as well as to the child with a limited understanding of the situation. (Picture book. 7-10)
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2003)



Other related features:

1. Explore Fiction - Children's -> Explore Fiction -> Boys and Girls -> African-American Girls

2. Teaching with Fiction - Caring and Kindness Start At Home


Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other Contributors:
Lewis, Earl B.: illustrator

ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0399239723
0142403598 : Paperback - Juvenile
0606346023 : DEMCO Turtleback - Juvenile


Credits:
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20040820
• TID: 126737

Stompin' at the Savoy
Bebe Moore Campbell ; [illustrations by] Richard Yarde

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

On the night of her jazz dance recital Mindy feels too nervous to go, until a magical drum whisks her away to the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem where she finds her "happy feet."


New York: Philomel Books, 2006, 40 p.

Booklist Review: Gr. 2-4. Nervous about her jazz recital dance, Mindy follows a magical talking drum to the Savoy Ballroom in 1920s Harlem, where she moves her happy feet to the loud, joyful music of the legendary bands, and joins the dancers shaking and stomping, swinging and strutting. Young readers won't recognize the famous jazz names (from Chick Webb to Benny Goodman), but Campbell, who is best known for her adult books, and renowned watercolorist Yarde create an exuberant sense of the legendary ballroom with the great artists in music and dance who give the child the strength to join in («She felt as if her body was a drumbeat»). The watercolors, with sharply etched white outlines and shapes, express the magical realism and rhythms of the shimmying dancers and musicians lit up in the night. Mindy's return home becomes just as magical when her three great-aunts inspire her with their own dance moves. -- Hazel Rochman (Reviewed 08-01-2006) (Booklist, vol 102, number 22, p82)

Kirkus Reviews A young girl is magically transported to the legendary jazz ballroom. It's the day of Mindy's dance recital, and she's so nervous she can't eat her dinner. In the next room, her three lively aunts—Willa Mae, Naomi and Norma—are doing their usual after-dinner jazz dancing. Mindy stomps to her room, slams the door and flings herself down on her bed. The next thing she knows, she's awakened by a beating drum suspended in midair. She follows it to the glittering lights of the Savoy Ballroom, where she's welcomed by a tall cat in a white suit. Inside, Chick Webb's orchestra, including Benny Goodman on clarinet, plays lively jazz, and the floor is filled with couples, including her three aunts. Mindy's easily coaxed to dance, with "happy feet." A lift from her partner sends her up, up, up and back to her bed, landing softly. She's ready for the recital. Yarde's gorgeous illustrations, rendered in gouache and pastel, raise the modest story to something special. (Picture book. 5-9)
(Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006)



Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other Contributors:
Yarde, Richard, 1939-: ill

ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0399241973


Credits:
• Novelist/EBSCO Publishing
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20061020
• TID: 150259

What you owe me
Bebe Moore Campbell

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

A story of friendship, betrayal, loss, accountability and healing spanning 50 years of African-American history. Two friends start a cosmetics business together.


New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, c2001, 533 p.

Booklist Review: An unlikely pair of women--a black woman from Texas and a Jewish woman newly arrived from Poland--meet in L.A. in the 1940s and begin a friendship that will prompt 50 years of bitterness and betrayal. Hosanna fled Texas with her brother after their family was cheated out of their land. Gilda is a recent survivor of the German concentration camps, still wearing the internal and external scars. The only thing of value that Gilda has brought with her is her family’s formula for moisture lotion. Hosanna gets the idea of selling the lotion to black women longing for a little beauty and luxury in their harsh lives. But Gilda and Hosanna’s friendship--and partnership--can’t withstand racism and the meddling of Gilda’s family. Hosanna is abandoned, nearly penniless, to continue her enterprise alone. She forsakes a true love and neglects her husband and daughters for the sake of her business. Fifty years later, long after Hosanna’s death, her daughter Matriece, literally haunted by her mother, carries on Hosanna’s drive and sense of betrayal. When she goes to work for Gilda Cosmetics, Matriece keeps her identity secret until she can recover what her mother lost. But she learns what Hosanna never did: how to balance love and ambition, friendship and enterprise.
(Reviewed July 1, 2001) -- Vanessa Bush

Publishers Weekly Review: The friendship between a black woman and a new immigrant in 1940s California sets in motion events that span two generations in Campbell's (Singing in the Comeback Choir) densely plotted new novel. Hosanna Clark, a maid at an elegant Los Angeles hotel, befriends her new white co-worker Gilda Rosenstein, a Holocaust survivor whose family had owned a cosmetics factory. When Hosanna tries a special lotion Gilda has made, she persuades Gilda to produce it for Hosanna to sell to local black women. They are very successful, and at Gilda's suggestion they open a joint bank account. Not long after, Gilda and her new husband disappear with all their profits. Daughter Matriece, a witness to Hosanna's struggle to survive on her own, resolves to achieve the success her mother never had; she eventually becomes a division president in Gilda's cosmetics empire. Ignorant of Matriece's identity, Gilda mentors the young woman, with whom she feels an unexplained bond. Gilda's reaction, when she finally learns the truth, is unexpected, and she startles everyone with a surprising proposal that brings the story to a neat conclusion. Numerous subplots crowd the novel, covering issues from reparations and education to romance and betrayal. Campbell's detailed treatment of each accounts for the book's length, but all are credibly tied to the central tale. Character portraits are sometimes shallow, and the story's length tests the reader's stamina, but those with the patience to follow its intricate, entwined relationships will find the novel rewarding. (Aug. 6)
— Staff (Reviewed July 9, 2001) (Publishers Weekly, vol 248, issue 28, p44)

Library Journal Review: Campbell (Brothers and Sisters) here tells the story of Hosanna Clark, a black maid in a Los Angeles hotel, and her surprising relationship with Gilda, a white Jewish émigrée from Poland. Just after World War II, the women join forces to promote a hand lotion that Gilda makes, with Gilda managing the financial end of their newborn partnership and Hosanna hustling the product. But just as they quit their jobs to make cosmetics for black women full time, Gilda disappears, as does all the cash in their joint bank account. Gilda starts her own cosmetics company, which brings her both fame and fortune, and Hosanna passes her jealousy, anger, and thirst for revenge on to her daughter, Matriece. Matriece goes to work for Gilda after Hosannah dies, with unfocused plans for revenge, but the crisis is unexpectedly resolved, with a happy ending for everyone. Campbell freights her story with ethical and religious messages and abundant black/white and parent/child conflicts it cannot quite sustain. Though the characters are well drawn, they are stereotypical, and their dialog is thin and somewhat stilted. Not as convincing as her other works but still a good read; recommended for public libraries.—Joanna Burkhardt, Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Univ. of Rhode Island, Providence (Reviewed July 1, 2001) (Library Journal, vol 126, issue 12, p120)

Kirkus Reviews An Imitation of Life saga of two cleaning ladies, one black, one white.
Newly arrived in postwar Los Angeles from rural Texas, Hosanna Clark befriends Holocaust survivor Gilda Rosenstein. Both women toil for subsistence wages at a fleabag hotel, their friendship hampered by Gilda's limited English and Hosanna's suspicion of white people. Hosanna is impressed, however, by Gilda's fragile strength, and Gilda, drawn to Hosanna's hard-working cheerfulness. She concocts a special lotion for Hosanna's ashy skin, and Hosanna quickly realizes its potential. The women scrimp and save to bottle the lotion, which Hosanna peddles to friends and fellow churchgoers, eventually going door-to-door. Gilda handles the business side, opening a checking account and banking their profits. Hosanna is heartbroken when the account is cleaned out and Gilda disappears. But she provides for her daughters Matriece and Vonette before a flash-forward reveals that Hosanna has died, although she remains a beneficent ghostly presence to Matriece, an up-and-coming marketing executive at Gilda's million-dollar company, in charge of Brown Sugar, a new cosmetics line for black women. Gilda, now in her 70s, still feels guilt about Hosanna—and the bank account her first husband forced her to close. She doesn't know that Matriece is Hosanna's daughter, but she's impressed by the young woman's savvy and drive. Matriece, meantime, must choose between Montgomery, scion of a wealthy, influential black family, and Sam, a born-again ex-con who turns out to be the father of Asia Pace, a troubled young hip-hop diva who can't decide whether she wants to be the spokesmodel for Brown Sugar. Eventually, Hosanna's old friend and lover, a barbecue-restaurant entrepreneur, will uncover the facts behind Gilda's long-ago betrayal—and threaten—to reveal all.
Another warmhearted, carefully crafted, if not especially original story from Campbell (Singing in the Comeback Choir, 1998, etc.).
(Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2001)



Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


Other titles associated with this book:
You owe me


ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0399147845
0425186318 : Paperback - Mass Market
0786238755 : Hardcover - Large Print


Credits:
• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 064314

Your blues ain't like mine

Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore, 1950-

When African American Armstrong Todd visits Hopewell, Mississippi, in 1955, Floyd Cox murders him, and following the trial, both families try to rebuild their lives.


New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, copyright 1992, 332p.


Booklist Review: In her memoir, "Sweet Summer: Growing Up with and without My Dad", Campbell demonstrated keen perception of the different life-styles adopted by her northern, citified mother and southern, rural father after their divorce. In this novel, she writes of the howlingly painful impact of the shooting of a young black man spending the summer with his grandmother in Mississippi. The boy's knowledge of French and declaration of plans for success outside of the small town rouse the jealous anger of a mean, poor white man, who kills him after being convinced that the 15-year-old had spoken improperly to his wife. This incident opens the novel, which goes on to report the effects of this murder upon both the white and the black families over the course of three generations. Campbell writes with incredible power and insight about the private wars sparked by integration. ((Reviewed Aug. 1992)) -- Denise Perry Donavin

School Library Journal Review: YA-- The supreme court ruling on desegregation blew winds of change in Hopewell, Mississippi where the classes--monied, poor whites, and blacks--knew their places. When a 15-year-old African-American unknowingly crosses the accepted line, he is brutally murdered by a poor white, setting in motion a series of events that leave no one in the town untouched. Powerful in emotion (from understated to explosive), propelled by unstoppable forces, the book is compelling reading. It exposes family, race, and class divisions in America from the 1950s to the present, and the rich characterization explores the base, the noble, and the ordinary in all of us. This is not for everyone because of the sexual explicitness and the intricate weavings of the social strata. But YAs who were moved by Mildred Taylor's books and Alice Walker's The Color Purple will be ready for and appreciate Campbell.-- Judy Sokoll, Fairfax Country Public Library, VA

Publishers Weekly Review: Written in poetic prose, filled with masterfully drawn and sympathetic characters that a less able hand might have rendered in stereotypes, this first novel blends the irony of Flannery O'Connor's fiction and the poignance of Harper Lee's. Moving quickly and believably from the eve of integration in rural Mississippi to the present-day street gangs in Chicago's housing projects, Campbell ( Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad ) captures the gulf between pre-and post-civil rights America; her story, starting with the murder of a young black man whose trial--argued before an all-white jury--captures national attention, shows us how far we have come and yet suggests we have not come so far after all. When word gets out that black teenager Armstrong Todd was talking French to Lily Cox, the Cox men kill him. Clayton Pinochet, the local newspaper reporter whose father is the most powerful and reactionary man in town, secretly tips off the national press; the men are arrested for what in previous times would have been a permissible crime. Their acquittal makes it clear that the system doesn't provide justice, and life never returns to normal for anyone. Details--the advent of TV, the polio vaccine, a Faulkner novel, Vietnam, women's lib and Oprah! --add to the rich, textured background. (Sept.)

Library Journal Review: Set mostly in rural Mississippi during the early Civil Rights era, this first novel by the author of the autobiography Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad ( LJ 4/1/89) opens dramatically when a poor white man, Floyd Cox, murders a black teenager, Armstrong Todd. The boy's crime? Speaking harmless French in the presence of Cox's wife, Lily, whom Cox himself routinely brutalizes. Nearly every stratum of the small town of Delta quakes over Cox's action, taken to impress his daddy. Campbell ably reveals the complex relationships among townspeople in this multilayered Southern community. Even though some characters' blues clearly differ from others, all have compromises to make and grief, shame, and responsibility to bear or share. The ending leaves open the possibility of recovery or recurrence.-- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

Kirkus Reviews Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black Chicagoan whose lynching in 1955 in Mississippi outraged much of the nation. Moore (previously known for her memoir, Sweet Summer, 1989) here fictionalizes his story without, curiously, ever explicitely acknowledging this "little nobody who shook up the world." Lily and Floyd Cox are young marrieds and poor whites in Hopewell, Mississippi, in 1955. Floyd owns a run-down shack of a pool hall patronized by black sharecroppers. Armstrong Todd is a 15-year-old black kid raised in Chicago, visiting with his grandmother. He speaks some French in Lily's presence in the pool hall; this is uppity enough to draw the wrath of the Coxes. The insecure Floyd proves his manhood to his father and brother by beating and then shooting Armstrong in their presence. Clayton Pinochet, son of plantation owner Stonewall and guilt-racked closet liberal, makes sure the story goes national by telephoning (secretly) a New York reporter. Meanwhile, Armstrong's mother, Delotha, insists that her boy he buried in Chicago, where there's a huge funeral. Floyd is tried and found not guilty, but his business is ruined by a boycott. Delotha heads south, seeking vengeance, but changes her mind en route. Moore tells all this briskly (it's her one strength), while capturing only a fraction of the terror and downplaying the brutality: Till was disfigured almost beyond recognition. Having used up her core material quickly (poor pacing), she fills the novel's second half (which ends in 1988) with soap-opera (the marital problems of the Todds and the Coxes) and a glib picture of the New South, embodied in Lily's spunky daughter Doreen, who joins her black sisters on a picket line ("I ain't scared of being raped by Willie Horton, Mama. I'm scared of not having medical benefits"). This would be just another unmemorable first novel were it not for its crass exploitation of one of America's foremost victims of racism. Till, and the Movement, deserve better.
(Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 1992)



Other related features:

1. Book Discussion Guide - Four Spirits


Author Web Sites:
1. Bebe Moore Campbell's Web Site : Features author, book, contact, and appearance information.


ISBNs Associated with this Title:
0345401123 : Paperback - Mass Market
0345383958 : Paperback
0399137467 : Hardcover
1570421889 : Cassette - Audio
0785730389 : Glued Binding
156895221X : Hardcover - Large Print


Credits:
• Hennepin County Public Library
• Baker & Taylor
• American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults, published by Oryx Press
• MetaMetrics, Inc.
• Booklist, published by the American Library Association
• School Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Publishers Weekly, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Library Journal, A Reed Elsevier Business Information Publication
• Copyright 2005, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
• Added to NoveList: 20010101
• TID: 018626