Hattie Mae Begins Again

From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winning author of The Skin I'm In comes a poignant story about a southern girl far from home at an elite girls boarding school in the north, who must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future, set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly. Hattie Mae hails from Seed County, North Carolina. She knows hard work: milking cows, plucking chickens, minding the garden. Her hands are made for manual labor—her feet for dirt—that is according to Lisa and some of the other girls at Miss Abigail’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies in Philadelphia. Hattie could never be a doctor or a scientist or anyone worthy cause she’s a hick from the south. Hattie is afraid they might be right. She sticks out like a sore thumb from the way she dresses to the way she eats to the way she carries herself. Hattie has more in common with the hundreds of Black folks pouring into the city looking for better opportunities away from Jim Crow’s south. She doesn’t belong and doubts that she ever will. A moving coming-of-age story about finding the courage to be yourself and chasing a better life, lifting other folks up with you along the way.