Smelling Herself

Smelling Herself is told through the voice of Bernadine, a precocious eleven-year-old wordsmith. Being an African American girl and living in West Oakland projects in 1964 can be a vulnerable and scary affair. Bernadine's convinced that the solution to her predicament is to grow up. But she soon discovers that growing up is more complicated than she expected. Though her community is loving-as is her mother and father-her environment is anything but child-friendly with kids getting shot by cops and others beating up their classmates in the tunnel that she has to pass through every day to and from school. Her precarious sense of well-being begins to unravel when Jessie Mae, a girl not much older than she, moves into the apartment above hers and Bernadine discovers the child is being abused. Fearless Bernadine makes it her mission to save Jessie Mae as though she's saving herself and every other child who lives with constant threats, though the harder she tries to save Jessie Mae, the more her loved ones are put in danger.Smelling Herself is imbued with Bernadine's humor, intelligence, and kindred love, as Terris McMahan Grimes unflinchingly investigate-through the eyes of a quick-witted child-what it means to navigate dangerous times without fully understanding the world she lives in. It's the story of childhood's brazen hopes and hindrances.

Author: Terris McMahan Grimes
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 10/27/2013
Pages: 172
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.52lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.37d
ISBN: 9781492300540

About the Author
Terris McMahan Grimes began her professional writing career killing off people in her award winning Theresa Galloway mystery series. The first book in the series, Somebody Else's Child, won Anthony Awards for best first novel and best paperback original. She has also won the Chester Himes Black Mystery Writers Award. Grimes was born in Tucker, Arkansas and grew up in West Oakland, the setting of Smelling Herself. She writes from her home studio in Sacramento, California. But she grew up in West Oakland, the setting of Smelling Herself.

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