Coffee Will Make You Black (Stevie Stevenson #1)
April Sinclair
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
4.06
· 18 ratings · 258 pages · Published: 05 Apr 1995
The novel opens at a time when, for black families, seeing a black person on television was an event; when expressions like "I don't want nothing black but a Cadillac" and "Coffee will make you black" were handed down from one generation to the next without comment. Stevie is a bookworm, yet she longs to fit in with the cool crowd. Fighting her mother every step of the way, she begins to experiment with talkin' trash, "kicking butt," and boys.
With the assassination of Dr. King she gains a new political awareness, which makes her decide to wear her hair in a 'fro instead of straightened, to refuse to use skin bleach, and to confront the prejudice she observes in blacks as well as whites. April Sinclair writes frankly about a young black woman's sexuality, and about the confusion Stevie faces when she realizes she's more attracted to the school nurse—who is white—than her teenage boyfriend.
As readers follow Stevie's at times harrowing, at times hilarious story, they will learn what it was like to be black before black was beautiful.
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The 'Stevie Stevenson' series
3.96 · 24 ratings
book · black-mc · historical · 20th-century · poc-mc · urban · fiction · lgbtq · wlw · audiobook · feminism · racism · literary · coming-of-age · lesbian-mc · classics · young-adult · poc-author · literary-fiction · historical-fiction
Stevie Stevenson reading order and complete book list ❯