Going Down South

July 28, 2008
Glover weaves the stories of three generations of African American women in a tale both familiar and surprising. In the early 1960s, 15-year-old Olivia Jean tells her parents she is pregnant, and her father, Turk, and mother, Daisy, decide to take Olivia to Daisy's mother's house in Cold Water Springs, Ala., to avoid a scandal in their Brooklyn neighborhood. The plan is for Daisy and Turk to return to Brooklyn and leave Olivia in the care of her grandmother, Birdie. But Birdie insists that Daisy remain as well. Daisy is deeply resentful of her mother, who ran a bootlegging operation in their dry county when Daisy was young, but she agrees to stay, and over the next few months, all three women learn about themselves. While the arc may seem familiar, Glover does an admirable job of avoiding cliche (as when Daisy and Birdie attempt to resolve their conflicts with a wrestling match) and provides readers with an absorbing setting and a complex family.

October 1, 2008
Adult/High School-Olivia Jean, Daisy, and Birdie are three generations of black women who must deal with pregnancy, relationships with difficult and absent mothers, and men who cannot or will not stand by them in times of emotional ordeal. Each of their stories forms the core of the book, with the fourth section given over to a well-crafted, credible, and cathartic denouement in which they are reconstituted as a family. In the early 1960s, New Yorker Olivia Jean, 15, discovers that she is pregnant. Her 30-year-old mother, Daisy, takes her to Alabama to her own mother, Birdie, whom she hasn't seen since she left home at Olivia Jean's age. There, they wait out the teen's shameful state away from neighbors' prying eyes and wagging tongues. Each of these women is feisty, insightful, and smartand impatient with the generation immediately next to her own. Glover brings each of themas well as Olivia Jean's adored daddy and Birdie's mysterious partnersto vivid and well-focused life. Easy and quick to read, this story will resonate with girls who know the culture portrayed as well as those who are looking from the outside in."Francisca Goldsmith, Halifax Public Libraries, Nova Scotia"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 16, 2008
Glover weaves the stories of three generations of African American women in a tale both familiar and surprising. In the early 1960s, 15-year-old Olivia Jean tells her parents she is pregnant, and her father, Turk, and mother, Daisy, decide to take Olivia to Daisy's mother's house in Cold Water Springs, Ala., to avoid a scandal in their Brooklyn neighborhood. The plan is for Daisy and Turk to return to Brooklyn and leave Olivia in the care of her grandmother, Birdie. But Birdie insists that Daisy remain as well. Daisy is deeply resentful of her mother, who ran a bootlegging operation in their dry county when Daisy was young, but she agrees to stay, and over the next few months, all three women learn about themselves. While the arc may seem familiar, Glover does an admirable job of avoiding cliché (as when Daisy and Birdie attempt to resolve their conflicts with a wrestling match) and provides readers with an absorbing setting and a complex family.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2008
Daisy, fair skinned and beautiful, has a moderately decent life in New York, living with her teenage daughter, Olivia Jean, and her husband, Turk, who occasionally disappears for a few days. Obsessed with keeping track of Turk, Daisy neglects Olivia Jean, who, at 15, in search of love and attention, gets pregnant. To avoid disgrace in the 1960s middle-class black neighborhood in Brooklyn, Daisy and Turk slip away with Olivia Jean andhead south to Cold Water Springs, Alabama, and Mama Birdie. Daisy has not seen her mother since Daisy left home at 15herself. Birdie agrees to keep Olivia Jean, but only if Daisy stays as well. The women spend the duration of the pregnancy unearthing truths and secrets that have created emotional distance as they rediscover the meaning of family. Through beautifully drawn characters, Glover tells the story from the perspective of each of the women, weaving three generations offemales looking for love and independence.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)