An exceptionally well-told story of a child—Mary—and her relationship with the black woman, Amelia (Mimi), who takes care of the house, the clothes, the cooking, and most of all the children in Mary’s family. As the book begins the family is moving from Chattanooga to New Jersey because of Mary’s father’s new job. The father is leaving the South, but the South does not leave him: he clings to the white supremacy beliefs he probably learned in childhood and never questions, although he often exhibits a paternalistic concern for Amelia’s well-being. The Jersey neighbors aren’t much more open-minded, if at all.

The book is indeed “small moments” from Mary’s childhood: picking blackberries, playing with neighborhood children, playing with plastic pearl beads while sitting on Amelia’s bed. But it is also small moments when she glimpses the inequalities in society and the separate cultures of white and black, though she does not grasp the implications at the time.

The book hooked me from page 1 and completely immersed me in its story and characters. It is a deeply emotional book. Some of those emotions are sadness over things that happen in the story and with the general attitudes of the times, but I also found great pleasure in the descriptions (and this book is highly descriptive) of things that took me back to my own childhood: the berry picking, metal casters on bedposts, etc.

It has won several awards. In my opinion, it deserves them all and deserves as wide a readership as possible. If you have any interest in this time period, or in the mid-twentieth century civil rights movement shown in microcosm, or if you just want an engrossing and unusual story that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it, by all means check this book out.