Coming of Age in Mississippi

This memoir poses significant challenges for the narrator. She must capture the essence of the author from an unschooled 4-year-old to a polished adult writer. Lisa Renee Pitts carries it off well. In addition, she gives individual characters just enough difference in tone that extended conversations sound like multiple people reading. And when an incident in a movie theater forces the author to confront the realities of racism, the anguish and eventual anger in her voice are palpable. Later, after the lynching of Emmett Till, she talks of knowing "the fear of hunger, hell, and the devil. But now there was the fear of being killed just because I was black." This is a powerful book rendered all the more powerful by an intimate reading that makes the author and her words come alive. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine