The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This book is about black maids that raise white children, but are not trusted by their owners. It is set in Jackson,Mississippi, in 1962. A black maid- Aibileen is  raising her seventeenth white child called Mae Mobley . Aibileen had lost her son in a tragic death, he was crushed by a truck at his work.The hospital could do nothing for him, he died on the sofa at home. Aibileen worked for Elizabeth Leefolt who was expecting her second baby! Aibileen loved Mae Mobley, the one thing she kept telling Mae Mobley 'you is smart, you is kind, you is important.'  She says this to her because her mum does not think much of Mae Mobley. 
Minnie is another black maid. She is Aibileen's best friend. Minnie is a real character! At first she worked for Miss Hilly, who was president of the Jackson Junior League. Hilly was not kind to her black maids.She made all the white people build a separate toilet for their black maids.Hilly fired Minnie because she used the toilet that the white people use. Hilly loved Minnie's chocolate pie. So when Hilly fired Minnie, she  wanted to say sorry for what she had done, so she made Hilly a chocolate pie. The difference was that in this pie was Minnie's own poo! The reason Minnie did this was because she was mad at Hilly for firing her, and the whole point about the poo was because of the business about the black maids using a separate loo. This plays a significant part in the story. 
Miss Skeeter returns for college wanting to be a writer, she gets a job writing a cleaning advice column. But she asks Aibileen what the answers are because she has never cleaned before because she is white! Skeeter longs to be a proper writer. She decides to write a book about what it is like to be a black maid working for a white home. She asks for Aibileen's and Minnie's help, this is very dangerous because if they get caught they could be but in prison!
After Minnie gets fired she goes to work for Miss Celia, Miss Celia is from a poorer white family and therefore is rejected by the other white families. Minnie went to work for her because no other white woman would take her after what she did! Celia has had many miscarriages and has no children. 
Between them and the help of the other black maids, Skeeter publishes a book called 'The Help'. After this Skeeter gets a job writing in New York and she decides to go. Aibileen gets fired from her job because it was thought that she had stolen some sliver, which she hadn't! But Aibileen gets the job writing the cleaning column that Skeeter used to do. Skeeter writing this book really changed the way white people treated their black maids.


Great book and film. 10/10!! 


By M Donaldson