Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel
by April Sinclair
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Book Summary Information
Author: April SinclairEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-02-01
ISBN: 0380724596
Number of pages: 239
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel
Book Review: Coffee Will Make You Black Is A Great Book
Summary: 5 Stars
In the book Coffee Will Make You Black, by April Sinclair, the lead character Jean Stevenson, Stevie to her friends, tells in a narrative perspective of her adolescent years, growing up in Chicago in the 1960's. The book is like Stevie's diary. She tells you her experiences with boys, girls, love, sex, popularity, school and racism in a comical and to-the-point fashion. The book is a quick, easy, fun read that hooks you from the start. It deals with very realistic issues that are fun and interesting to read about. The book makes you feel like you are part of Stevie's chaotic life. She gives you the opportunity to share her deepest, darkest, secrets. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the book an 8. I enjoyed reading it greatly, and finished it in one day. I liked reading it because it dealt with issues that I deal with. It tells of Stevie's hard times with boys, other girls, sex, love, popularity, which are all important to me now as a freshman in high school. It didn't take very long to get into the book because the first page is a humorous anecdote about a boy asking if 12 year old Stevie is a virgin. Stevie, confused with the meaning of virgin, goes home and asks her mamma. The whole book is little anecdotes like the one above so I liked it from the start. The book isn't very short yet the words and vocabulary are very easy and simply written so stumbling over big words is not a problem. Nothing very big happens in the book, it stays rather monotone throughout. Something I found a little hard to understand was the slang. Since Stevie is growing up in the sixties in Chicago, there are bound to be differences in slang but overall the read is easy. It may be hard for younger people to read this book because they might not get what some of the terms mean. This book reminded me of many movies about teenage-hood. Like American Pie or Election. I have never read another book by April Sinclair but I enjoyed this book and will read other works by this author. In class we have reading groups where there are four groups of five kids and each group reads a different book. To decide which book to read the teacher read the first pages of every book. I enjoyed the first page so I signed up to read this book. Since the book is written from a females perspective, I think that girls would relate and enjoy reading it more because it deals with female issues. I can imagine a guy not understanding the complete intent of the author. The book is very funny so I think that the reader should have a good sense of humor, and maybe someone that grew up in the sixties could relate to an even greater extent. " What does `coffee will make you black mean mama?' `The old folks in the South used to tell that to children so they wouldn't want to drink coffee. The last thing anybody wanted to be was black."' This quote is from page 111 in the book. I chose this quote not only because it is obviously the line in which the title of the book comes from, but because it also represents the feelings about different races at the time. I don't get why people ever thought that darker skin made a difference. Personally I think all racism is ridiculous and that this quote is very interesting. To think that back then the children were told that in order to stay lighter they shouldn't drink coffee is ridiculous. It shows that back then they weren't proud of their skin color and would do anything, like not drink coffee, to stay lighter. I wonder if maybe this saying was also to keep kids from just drinking coffee. Maybe they didn't want the children to drink too much caffeine. In any case being darker was the worst thing imaginable. I hope that this quote shows a little bit of how the book is written. This is a more serious moment in the book but I thought it was important. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Summary of Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel
I still thought breasts might be more trouble than they were worth. Growing up reminded me a little bit of Hide and Go Seek. When it was your time to grow up, Natrue said, "Here I come, ready or not." And Nature could always find you.African American Books
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