"A diamond in the rough" is how Avery's mom has defined Barbell ever since the family decided to move there. It's not like the family had any other choice. The town's biggest claim to fame is that it has the richest soil on earth which makes it a great place to grow. However, with the history of the South, this claim seems insidious to the family.
Matters aren't helped by the fact that Avery has been uprooted from her life in D.C and been forced to move there because of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. To aggravate matters further, the family is mixed, Avery's dad is white and her mother black, and Barbell is in the south, where there is animosity between the races, problems, issues and, possibly, extreme danger for Avery and her family. Just for being different. Avery’s grandmother is not an easy person to live with (and this is stating the problem the woman has with everyone and everything lightly). If only Avery’s grandmother didn’t complain about everything her mother has ever done (and does) and insult’s her father about his color.
Will Avery’s new friends and a budding romance help her overcome the history of Barbell and the stains it left behind? Or, will she be able to overcome the town and be able to blossom into a woman in her new home? We Deserve Monuments, by Jas Hammonds, is a coming of age tale in a town you want to miss (but, not the book), if only to see what the past has done to the future of the South. Especially from the eyes of a young northern girl who never understood what the South was like. The book left me with the question, “Would ignorance of this knowledge be better than having to know it?” After reading the book, you will be able to answer that question for yourself.
Happy Reading!
Matters aren't helped by the fact that Avery has been uprooted from her life in D.C and been forced to move there because of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. To aggravate matters further, the family is mixed, Avery's dad is white and her mother black, and Barbell is in the south, where there is animosity between the races, problems, issues and, possibly, extreme danger for Avery and her family. Just for being different. Avery’s grandmother is not an easy person to live with (and this is stating the problem the woman has with everyone and everything lightly). If only Avery’s grandmother didn’t complain about everything her mother has ever done (and does) and insult’s her father about his color.
Will Avery’s new friends and a budding romance help her overcome the history of Barbell and the stains it left behind? Or, will she be able to overcome the town and be able to blossom into a woman in her new home? We Deserve Monuments, by Jas Hammonds, is a coming of age tale in a town you want to miss (but, not the book), if only to see what the past has done to the future of the South. Especially from the eyes of a young northern girl who never understood what the South was like. The book left me with the question, “Would ignorance of this knowledge be better than having to know it?” After reading the book, you will be able to answer that question for yourself.
Happy Reading!