Genre: Children’s lit, historical fiction
Medium: Hardcover
Synopsis: Follow the history of a dessert through four families during four different centuries.
Review: Oh boy. There’s a lot to be said about this book. At first, I did really enjoy it, despite the depictions of the smiling slaves, which is hugely problematic in itself. And I say “despite” because immediately after I read it and even now, I’m not sure whether I have any sort of authority to really discuss that.
I mean, overall, at face value, this book does a good job of tying in history through narrative, and showing how this dessert is something that can be used to bring people together and create memories. Which is great! But, like, yikes about the smiling slaves. So here’s the deal–I’m white, and definitely have opinions about this, but if y’all are interested in the discussion surrounding this book, I’d highly recommend reading reviews and thinkpieces written by black authors because it’s ultimately their voices that should have the authority.
So I suppose my thoughts can be summed up in one sentence: this is a pretty good book, if you can get past the smiling slaves.
Advertisements Share this:
