March 29, 2024
Gr 10 Up-Even though the story is told from the perspective of a young Black girl, Claudia, this narrative focuses on another young Black girl named Pecola, who believes that her impoverished family's Blackness is the key to her failure to thrive. She prays often for blue eyes and believes that her family life will improve if she gets them. While circumstances never do improve for Pecola, through her experiences, Claudia learns more about her own identity. Morrison's writing provides adept character creation, well-paced and rhythmically authentic dialogue, and a masterly use of irony and metaphor. The author presents an ugly picture of the world-violence, death, destruction, and rape. But there is also a beauty that goes beyond society's understanding of what beauty is or can be. A riveting portrayal that centers the experience of Black Americans in the mid-20th century, and offers an incisive view of mainstream culture from a Black perspective. While not portrayed with much detail, scenes of sexual abuse will be troubling to some readers. VERDICT Gritty, often dark, and ultimately jubilant, the novel offers an essential key to understanding American culture.-Bob Hassett & Raven L. Jones
Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from February 1, 2025
Set in Lorain, OH, in the years following the Great Depression, the debut novel by Nobel Prize winner Morrison is a powerful work that centers the experience of Black girlhood and introduces readers to the author's skillful command of language. Pecola Breedlove is an 11-year-old girl who believes she is ugly and prays to have blue eyes so the world will see her differently. Through Pecola's family and community, the novel traces the generational trauma of racism: her mother, who has internalized white standards of beauty, is left feeling unworthy of love; her father, abandoned as a baby, was humiliated by two white men during his first sexual experience and perpetuates that humiliation and violence when he rapes and impregnates his young daughter. An outcast when her baby dies, Pecola descends into madness, believing that her eyes have finally turned blue. VERDICT Morrison's unflinching depictions imbue her characters with a richness and complexity that directs readers to regard them as worthy of attention and love. Even in the most painful scenes, she compels readers not to look away. An important text for generating discussion on race, culture, and U.S. society, this is an essential work for public, high school, and academic libraries.--Hallie Rich
Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.