The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Reading Level: Adult
(4 out of 5)

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Skeeter is home from college and ready to start a career as a writer but it's 1962 in Jackson Mississippi and her mother won't be happy until a ring is on her finger. The one person Skeeter would find solace in, her maid Constantine, is gone. No one will tell her where she went.

Aibileen is a maid for Skeeter's best friend Elizabeth and she is raising her seventeenth white child. Since the death of her own beloved son a bitter seed has grown inside her. She loves the little girl she is raising but she knows that both of their hearts might get broken.

Then there is Minny. Minny is one of the finest cooks in Mississippi but she has a sharp tongue and can't hold a job. She's been fired from as many jobs as babies Aibileen has raised . When she gets let go from yet another job she gets hired by a women so new to the town she doesn't know Minny well enough to know her reputation. Minny's new employer has secrets of her own.

When Skeeter decides to write a book about the Help she goes to Aibileen first. Aibileen agrees after refusing a few times but she wants her story to be heard and then later Minny agrees as well. Farther down the road several other maids come forward as well. At that time during that climate it was very brave of them to come forward and share their stories. Many of them were heartwarming and not unpleasant. Skeeter's friend Hilly was quite unpleasant. I didn't like her very much. People let her have too much power over them and should have stood up to her. Hilly and I would not have been friends.

This book made me laugh, tear up, and really made me think. It was a fantastic read. The only thing that would have made it better was if I would have gotten a little more closure with the characters. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.