Coffee Will Make You Black [Library Binding]

April Sinclair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2008

I still thought breasts might be more trouble than they were worth. Growing up reminded me a little bit of Hide and Go Seek. When it was your time to grow up, Natrue said, "Here I come, ready or not." And Nature could always find you.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sinclair's much-touted story of a teenage girl confronting racial prejudice while growing up on Chicago's South Side during the late 1960s.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

From newcomer Sinclair, the coming-of-age story of a black girl in 1960's Chicago. Jean ``Stevie'' Stevenson is a child of the working poor. Her father is a hospital janitor, her mother is a bank teller, and Grandma owns a popular South Side chicken-stand. Sixth-grader Stevie, meanwhile, is tired of her mother's rules, her refusal to countenance ``black English,'' her attempts to make Stevie a dreaded ``L7'' (square). Stevie's dream is to be popular and cool, and her wish is granted when ``all the way cool'' Carla invites her to a party. Soon Stevie has had her first period, her first kiss (from sexy Yusef), and is learning that cool is not necessarily kind, for that dog Yusef has his classmates spy while the two show themselves to each other. All this is fresh and authentic. The trouble starts with Stevie's arrival at high school, which coincides with the ``black is beautiful'' period (it's 1967). Here, the flow is disrupted by obvious setups intended to make points about race and sexual orientation. Stevie and Carla happen on their white art-teacher having a date with a black man--puppets miming the interracial experimentation of the period. At school, the sympathetic Nurse Horn puts Stevie in a quandary: Is it possible to be friends with a white woman, who may even be ``funny'' (lesbian)? The question overshadows Stevie's almost consummated relationship with Sean, a straight-arrow senior, and although the good nurse answers it in best Ann Landers style (``because you have a schoolgirl crush on me doesn't make you a homosexual''), Stevie ends up dwarfed by her author's agenda. Sinclair's story works fine when she gives her characters room to breathe. A fair-to-middling debut. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1435242424
• ISBN-13: 978-1435242425
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,186,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It isn't scolding, August 31, 2003

By 

Nardsbaby "Connoisseur of the written word™" (Westside Chi-town, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel (Paperback)

I read this book so many years ago, and mainly because it was causing such a controversy at a school I just had to know what was "so bad" about this book.

It's a coming of age story where you meet young Stevie, a L7 (square) whose learning all about life and what it has to offer as far as what is a friend? a period? and the big deal about sex?

I think April Sinclair did an excellent job, we need books because sometimes mama can't talk to you because she's too afraid! I was tempted to call the school up and ask why the big fuss?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great coming-of-age story, August 17, 2001

By 

S. Thompson "casual reader" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel (Paperback)

I'm tempted to call this a black coming of age story, but why identify it as such when it's a great book no matter what your ethnicity?

Stevie grows up among a lot of political and social change, and the generation gap between how she sees things and how her mother views the white and black line is telling. As she goes through grade school through high school she starts questioning her parents mores, and figuring out how to deal with early encounters with interracial dating....

This book is also peppered with great bits of humor, including "Growing up reminded me a little bit of Hide and Go Seek. When it was your time to grow up, Nature said "Here I come, ready or not." And nature could always find you." This book will tell (remind?) you what it's like being a tomboy..., or first learning what a virgin is. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book For Teens, December 5, 2000

By 

"c-slide" (New Rochelle, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel (Paperback)

In the book Coffee Will Make You Black, by April Sinclair, the lead character Jean Stevenson, Stevie to her friends, tells in a narrative perspective of her adolescent years, growing up in Chicago in the 1960's. The book is like Stevie's diary. She tells you her experiences with boys, girls, love, sex, popularity, school and racism in a comical and to-the-point fashion. The book is a quick, easy, fun read that hooks you from the start. It deals with very realistic issues that are fun and interesting to read about. The book makes you feel like you are part of Stevie's chaotic life. She gives you the opportunity to share her deepest, darkest, secrets. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the book an 8. I enjoyed reading it greatly, and finished it in one day. I liked reading it because it dealt with issues that I deal with. It tells of Stevie's hard times with boys, other girls, sex, love, popularity, which are all important to me now as a freshman in high school. It didn't take very long to get into the book because the first page is a humorous anecdote about a boy asking if 12 year old Stevie is a virgin. Stevie, confused with the meaning of virgin, goes home and asks her mamma. The whole book is little anecdotes like the one above so I liked it from the start. The book isn't very short yet the words and vocabulary are very easy and simply written so stumbling over big words is not a problem. Nothing very big happens in the book, it stays rather monotone throughout. Something I found a little hard to understand was the slang. Since Stevie is growing up in the sixties in Chicago, there are bound to be differences in slang but overall the read is easy. It may be hard for younger people to read this book because they might not get what some of the terms mean. This book reminded me of many movies about teenage-hood. Like American Pie or Election. I have never read another book by April Sinclair but I enjoyed this book and will read other works by this author. In class we have reading groups where there are four groups of five kids and each group reads a different book. To decide which book to read the teacher read the first pages of every book. I enjoyed the first page so I signed up to read this book. Since the book is written from a females perspective, I think that girls would relate and enjoy reading it more because it deals with female issues. I can imagine a guy not understanding the complete intent of the author. The book is very funny so I think that the reader should have a good sense of humor, and maybe someone that grew up in the sixties could relate to an even greater extent. " What does 'coffee will make you black mean mama?' 'The old folks in the South used to tell that to children so they wouldn't want to drink coffee. The last thing anybody wanted to be was black."' This quote is from page 111 in the book. I chose this quote not only because it is obviously the line in which the title of the book comes from, but because it also represents the feelings about different races at the time. I don't get why people ever thought that darker skin made a difference. Personally I think all racism is ridiculous and that this quote is very interesting. To think that back then the children were told that in order to stay lighter they shouldn't drink coffee is ridiculous. It shows that back then they weren't proud of their skin color and would do anything, like not drink coffee, to stay lighter. I wonder if maybe this saying was also to keep kids from just drinking coffee. Maybe they didn't want the children to drink too much caffeine. In any case being darker was the worst thing imaginable. I hope that this quote shows a little bit of how the book is written. This is a more serious moment in the book but I thought it was important. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!