Book Review
By: Meseret Ghirmai
I read the book The Color of Water: A Black’s Man Tribute to his White Mother by James McBride. It is a novel that is about a boy named James who wanted to know why he had a white mother and a black father because he was black and his mother never told him the story of their ancestors. James was one of the 12 kids in the family who was smart, intelligent, and very strong inside. I liked this book because it was sad, but very interesting. I think that this book was very unique because of the way James’s family lived and what they went through was very difficult. I highly recommend this book and will provide reasons, interesting quotes, and moments that struck me while reading The Color of Water.
I recommend this book to people who like stories that are somewhat funny and sad because they have a lot of sad parts and you will feel sorry for a lot of the characters in this book. I rate this book a 10, being the best because I could really picture everything that this family is going through because I have seen other people who are in the same situation as James and his family. For some people this book would probably be really close to them because they have family whose going through this kind of situation today. I think this book’s genre would go under non fiction because this situation could happen in real life. This book is based on a true story. I also like how this book talks about everyone’s childhood and adulthood. Some chapters were italicized; because that’s when it was talking about the mom Ruth. The normal print was talking about James and his 11 other siblings. I felt bad for the mom because she had to raise 12 kids most of the time by herself with no help and she was a nearly blinded, crippled, ill, religious, polish woman who always tried her best. I think that any kid would really want to read this book also because some of the kids do some interesting things in the book and there are lessons that kids can learn from reading this book like: If you mess up in high school you will end up on the streets, but everybody knows that right. You think they do but nobody knows how James was like in high school and the type of trouble he got into.
Some of the things that struck me while reading this book were what happened to James grandma and grandpa, like how they grew up. I think some parts of this book are confusing and you may have to read things twice to understand the book. If you missed the little details it will mess everything up. That’s what happened to me; I misread the part where it said Bubeh (the grandma died) and I thought it said the mom died so I was asking questions to the members in my group, that who are they going to live with now and who will give them the best education if there mom died and there dad was barely there for them. I think the most important thing to every child is their education but not every body has the opportunity. Do you know how many kids would love to be in our shoes and live here to become successful? A lot of people would. Only people who have mixed parent with a lot of siblings and very poor would understand what James and his family went through. I think that this would be a great book. James and his family moved a lot because their fathers were preachers. Their mom didn’t liked the south because she was always made fun of and she was treated right just because she married a black man. I knew that I wanted to read this book as soon as I read the blurb of this book. I haven’t heard of this book ever before I read it.
I read some quotes that shocked me while I was reading this book. One quote was, “Educate your mind or you’ll be nothing.” The mom said that to James because he kept bothering her with a whole bunch of questions off topic and she was becoming annoyed. Another quote was when James said, What color is God?” James’s mom would say, God is the color of water.” Ruth would say that because she used to tell James that he was a human being and nothing else. She is a religious polish rabbi and she grew up in Poland and then she moved to the south. James waited for fourteen years to hear that story. Every time Ruth would go into a building people would call her, “Nigger Lover” or “Black Power!” She used to just ignore them, but it was worse for the kids, because they went to a white school with a Polish mother and all of the kids were black.
To conclude this book review, I just want to say you can’t judge a book by its cover and you can never know unless you try so just reading the book and seeing what’s inside. It’s very interesting and good. It’s the best book ever. I would so recommend this book to anyone out there. I’m glad I read this book.
I recommend this book to people who like stories that are somewhat funny and sad because they have a lot of sad parts and you will feel sorry for a lot of the characters in this book. I rate this book a 10, being the best because I could really picture everything that this family is going through because I have seen other people who are in the same situation as James and his family. For some people this book would probably be really close to them because they have family whose going through this kind of situation today. I think this book’s genre would go under non fiction because this situation could happen in real life. This book is based on a true story. I also like how this book talks about everyone’s childhood and adulthood. Some chapters were italicized; because that’s when it was talking about the mom Ruth. The normal print was talking about James and his 11 other siblings. I felt bad for the mom because she had to raise 12 kids most of the time by herself with no help and she was a nearly blinded, crippled, ill, religious, polish woman who always tried her best. I think that any kid would really want to read this book also because some of the kids do some interesting things in the book and there are lessons that kids can learn from reading this book like: If you mess up in high school you will end up on the streets, but everybody knows that right. You think they do but nobody knows how James was like in high school and the type of trouble he got into.
Some of the things that struck me while reading this book were what happened to James grandma and grandpa, like how they grew up. I think some parts of this book are confusing and you may have to read things twice to understand the book. If you missed the little details it will mess everything up. That’s what happened to me; I misread the part where it said Bubeh (the grandma died) and I thought it said the mom died so I was asking questions to the members in my group, that who are they going to live with now and who will give them the best education if there mom died and there dad was barely there for them. I think the most important thing to every child is their education but not every body has the opportunity. Do you know how many kids would love to be in our shoes and live here to become successful? A lot of people would. Only people who have mixed parent with a lot of siblings and very poor would understand what James and his family went through. I think that this would be a great book. James and his family moved a lot because their fathers were preachers. Their mom didn’t liked the south because she was always made fun of and she was treated right just because she married a black man. I knew that I wanted to read this book as soon as I read the blurb of this book. I haven’t heard of this book ever before I read it.
I read some quotes that shocked me while I was reading this book. One quote was, “Educate your mind or you’ll be nothing.” The mom said that to James because he kept bothering her with a whole bunch of questions off topic and she was becoming annoyed. Another quote was when James said, What color is God?” James’s mom would say, God is the color of water.” Ruth would say that because she used to tell James that he was a human being and nothing else. She is a religious polish rabbi and she grew up in Poland and then she moved to the south. James waited for fourteen years to hear that story. Every time Ruth would go into a building people would call her, “Nigger Lover” or “Black Power!” She used to just ignore them, but it was worse for the kids, because they went to a white school with a Polish mother and all of the kids were black.
To conclude this book review, I just want to say you can’t judge a book by its cover and you can never know unless you try so just reading the book and seeing what’s inside. It’s very interesting and good. It’s the best book ever. I would so recommend this book to anyone out there. I’m glad I read this book.
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