Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel by April Sinclair

Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel by April Sinclair is about growing up African-American in 1960s Chicago. This book is about the situations a girl goes through growing up in the 60s and 70s. I can connect with Stevie's brother, David; because he did things that I did when I was his age. For example, he joined a club because of a girl he thought was cute. I joined sports when I was in high school because all the girls were cute. He gets embarrassed by his family, and sometimes I get embarrassed by mines.

This book reminded me of my childhood. I grew up very sheltered with my parents, especially my dad, keeping me away from everything and everyone he deemed a bad influence. My neighbors were a white couple. The black girls in school would call me a 'white girl' and dislike me for no reason. So when I made my first Black friend, who happened to be from the projects, I wanted to emulate everything she did to fit in with the other black girls in school. The newest slang, the newest dances, knows biggie and Mary J lyrics, the boys that I was supposed to like because the other girls thought he was 'fine'. I could so relate to the main character of the book. All the things I was trying to do to impress were things I actually hated (the boys were full of themselves and too fast, the dances were vulgar, the music horrible in my opinion). Finally, I realized I had to go my own way and be who I was and if that meant losing my best friend because she didn't like the 'real me' than so be it.

Although it was a good book, it was a little too graphic. The author made a lot of references to sex. Other than that the book was good. I would recommend this book to an adult audience because of the sex references. The tone was overall happy. There was a lot of playful dialogue between the characters. The overall message of this story is to be yourself no matter what anybody tells you. Don’t let anyone take advantage of you. If the people you call your friends can't accept you for who you are then they are not your real friends. This novel is a very powerful story, and other woman should read this book. A most read! One of the best books I have ever read this year.