Yankee Girl
Yankee Girl is about a young American girl, Alice, who has just moved to Mississippi from her home in Chicago. At the time during the 1960s, there were still divisions between the South and North of the USA. There were also racially motivated attacks, especially in Mississippi. Alice is finding life in Mississippi difficult, with the threat of an attack on her home from the Ku Klux Klan, her new school being one of the first in the area to accept coloured children and being picked on because she is not the same as the rest of her class. She is confused at why some people are not allowed to speak to others, and why everyone picks on one of the new coloured girls, Valerie. The story travels with Alice through this time, as she has to make some difficult life and social choices, which could affect her life and her parents.
I thought that this book was fantastic, as a reader you share and possibly relate to Alice’s troubles of friendship and growing up. This book is not just a book that reflects on an important event in American history, but is also a book about change and acceptance of other people. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in American history and who enjoys books about moving from childhood to adulthood.
