{"id":33,"date":"2005-12-01T12:04:59","date_gmt":"2005-12-01T17:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/blog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2020-05-09T14:57:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T18:57:14","slug":"coffee-will-make-you-black-by-april-sinclair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Publisher\/Date:<\/strong>\u00a0 Harper, Feb. 1995
\nGenre(s):<\/strong>\u00a0 Young Adult, Coming Out
\nPages:<\/strong> 256
\nWebsite:<\/strong>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.aprilsinclair.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\" <\/p><\/strong><\/p>\n

I can remember reading COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK<\/em> <\/strong>as a teenager. It was the first novel that truly moved me. Rereading it years later, it still touches me.<\/p>\n

Coffee Will Make You Black<\/em>, the classic coming-of-age novel by acclaimed author April Sinclair, follows Jean \u201cStevie\u201d Stevenson as a teen growing up late 1960s Chicago. Back then, times were truly a-changing: black folks were still known as colored, but were slowly beginning to embrace the mantra \u201cBlack is beautiful.\u201d It was an era where parents wouldn\u2019t let their children drink coffee for fear it would darken their skin color. Social unrest and the civil rights movement were in full force. Born to working poor parents\u2014her mother a bank teller, her father a janitor\u2014Stevie, as she\u2019s affectionately known, is just a black girl is trying to make her way through adolescence in one piece.<\/p>\n

At the novel\u2019s beginning, Stevie is 11 and a half and in the sixth grade. She\u2019s in that awkward stage, flat-chested and taller than most of her male classmates. Her skin is the color of Cracker Jacks, but \u201cmost Negroes didn\u2019t get excited over folks who were darker than a paper bag.<\/p>\n

Stevie\u2019s only desire is to be popular, to hang with Carla, the girl everyone adores. She finally gets her wish when, after an altercation, the two become fast friends. Carla\u2019s a lot faster than Stevie and teaches her a lot about life.<\/p>\n

The novel traces Stevie\u2019s five years of her life, from first crushes to first kisses to first love. She learns a lot about herself through her friendships and her family, all while trying to pave her way in a racially-conscious time. But Stevie does make a white friend in Nurse Horne, one of the few Caucasian faculty members at her predominately black school. Nurse Horne believes in her and tells her she can become anything she puts her mind to. She also lets Stevie know it\u2019s ok to be \u201cfunny,\u201d to embrace her blossoming sexuality.<\/p>\n

Written with great heart and down-home humor, Sinclair\u2019s debut novel sizzles and makes a bold statement about being black and being yourself. Coffee<\/em> has a fresh voice and takes you back to being young and trying find your way in this world. Sinclair has crafted a novel that 10 years later, still resonates with the little black girl in all of us.<\/p>\n

Reviewed December 2005<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Harper, Feb. 1995 Genre(s):\u00a0 Young Adult, Coming Out Pages: 256 Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.aprilsinclair.net I can remember reading COFFEE WILL MAKE YOU BLACK as a teenager. It was the first novel that truly moved me. Rereading it years later, it still touches me. Coffee Will Make You Black, the classic coming-of-age novel by acclaimed author April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[44,76,137,534],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7469,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/7469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}