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Inventing Victoria Tonya Bolden Books

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Inventing Victoria Tonya Bolden Books

This historical fiction story tells about Essie, a young black girl in Savannah, in the 1870s and 1880s. Essie's mother is a prostitute who came to Savannah on Sherman's March to the Sea. The first few chapters tell about Essie's childhood being hidden in closets when her "uncles" came to call.

Essie was befriended by a cleaning woman who convinced her mother to send her to school. While she learned to read, she eventually left because of bullying by those who looked down on her because of her mother's profession. She relied on the cleaning woman - Ma Clara - for emotional support and to learn to take care of herself. She depended on books she found at a second hand store to continue her education.

When she was fourteen, she found a job at a boarding house and fell out with her mother. She was given the opportunity by a visitor to the boarding house to change her life. Dorcas Vashon offered to give her a new life if she was willing to leave her past behind. Because she wanted to better herself and find a purpose in life, she took the offer. Part of her new life involved a new name and, at sixteen, she became Victoria.

The story details all the things she had to learn and the books she read while learning to become a member of Washington, D.C.'s elite black society. She really did change her life as she learned those things. The lists of the books she read was daunting. She needed to learn how to fit into a society the paid attention to art, fashion, and etiquette. She got so involved that she almost lost her original purpose of making things better for her people.

It was realistic, but disappointing, that she needed to find a husband to realize her dreams. It was also difficult to know that this was the period before the rise of the Jim Crow laws when the small gains earned by blacks after the Civil War were going to be wiped out. I would be curious for the author to write more about Essie's (Victoria's) life.


Tags : Amazon.com: Inventing Victoria (9781681198071): Tonya Bolden: Books,Tonya Bolden,Inventing Victoria,Bloomsbury YA,168119807X,African Americans,African Americans;Fiction.,Identity,Identity (Philosophical concept),Identity;Fiction.,Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877),Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877);Fiction.,Savannah (Ga.) - History - 19th century,Washington (D.C.) - History - 19th century,101701 Bloomsbury US Childrens HC,African American,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,People & Places United States African American,Social Themes Prejudice & Racism,TEEN'S FICTION HISTORICAL,United States,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Historical United States 19th Century,YOUNG ADULT FICTION People & Places United States African American,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes Prejudice & Racism,Young Adult FictionPeople & Places - United States - African American,Young Adult FictionSocial Themes - Prejudice & Racism,young adult; YA fiction; YA historical fiction; African American; Washington D.C.; Washington DC; DC; D. C.; Savannah; Georgia; post-Reconstruction; post Reconstruction; equal rights; African American women; strong female protagonist; strong girl; smart girl; etiquette; society; black society; award-winning author; reinvention

Inventing Victoria Tonya Bolden Books Reviews

Don't let the beautiful cover fool you. This is not a polished, elegant young adult book about a young black woman rising socially during the Reconstruction Era. Instead, it's a rambling mess that squanders its premise and strongly resembles the style and substance of the Out West Pioneers story I wrote the summer after sixth grade.

Thematically, this book and my story have nothing in common, but they are both similarly terrible in their inability to harness plot, character, or setting towards any real purpose. This book has a wonderful concept, and it could have been dazzling, especially since it's on such a rarely addressed subject. However, even in the scene where the heroine meets Frederick Douglass, every page remains a snooze-fest. I wish I had taken the advice of critical Goodreads reviewers and passed on this book, but I just didn't believe it could be that bad.

Unfortunately, it was worse. This reads like a first draft, and a terrible one at that. I really liked "Crossing Ebeneezer Creek," this author's previous YA novel, but apparently, even though she can write evocatively and memorably in free verse, she cannot write in prose. This story is just a string of lifeless, detached events strung together, with no real plot or character development. Even though the story concept is full of potential for dramatic conflict, the droning, lecturing narrative voice squanders every opportunity. Why dramatize the details and life of a pivotal conversation, when you can just summarize it afterward?

One of my besetting failures in my sixth grade story was my inability to dramatize, and my constant rush through different events, making them even more vague and lifeless in my hurry to get to something with some spark. This reads in much the same way, like the author is impatient with what she is writing and is eager to get on to the next thing. I don't think there was a single dramatized scene in this entire book. Everything is just reported, in the driest and most boring way imaginable.

This is why some people grow up thinking they don't like history, but honestly, the gigantic tome that I'm reading for my current college class on Jacksonian America reads like an adventure novel in comparison to this. It's possible for history to be well-researched and engaging, but this book just name-drops famous figures, incorporates facts, and never even tries to recreate the period with any life or interest. The book I'm reading in class is full of telling details and human interest, but this novel is flat, boring, and utterly lifeless.
I wanted to love this one, I really truly did. It gave me upper-class post-slavery, moving on up vibes--while it delivered that, in a languid pace--it left me wanting.

I'm just going to start right off when the things I didn't like. The story itself seemed on a path to something that by the end it didn't quite meet. It was aimless and plot-less if I can say so.

The writing itself is magnificent--engaging and truly believable for the time it was set in. From the dress and the language, it read like a Langston Hughes--Harlem Renaissance era novel. But as far as the intentions and the direction, it was a little muddled.

What I did enjoy however was the rags-to-riches side of the story. The main character did not allow a less than stellar upbringing deter her from creating the life she felt she deserved--and I am all for a heroine pulling herself up by the bootstraps and going for it.

I also rather enjoyed the look into post-slavery. It felt very realistic--and was easy to follow. The colorism and the ever-present distaste for black people, in general, was fitting for the time it was written in and was all too real for right now.

This author clearly has something. Her writing is on point but the story itself though again beautifully written was lacking a certain something to take it over. I'm definitely open to more--but there's more to be said here.
This historical fiction story tells about Essie, a young black girl in Savannah, in the 1870s and 1880s. Essie's mother is a prostitute who came to Savannah on Sherman's March to the Sea. The first few chapters tell about Essie's childhood being hidden in closets when her "uncles" came to call.

Essie was befriended by a cleaning woman who convinced her mother to send her to school. While she learned to read, she eventually left because of bullying by those who looked down on her because of her mother's profession. She relied on the cleaning woman - Ma Clara - for emotional support and to learn to take care of herself. She depended on books she found at a second hand store to continue her education.

When she was fourteen, she found a job at a boarding house and fell out with her mother. She was given the opportunity by a visitor to the boarding house to change her life. Dorcas Vashon offered to give her a new life if she was willing to leave her past behind. Because she wanted to better herself and find a purpose in life, she took the offer. Part of her new life involved a new name and, at sixteen, she became Victoria.

The story details all the things she had to learn and the books she read while learning to become a member of Washington, D.C.'s elite black society. She really did change her life as she learned those things. The lists of the books she read was daunting. She needed to learn how to fit into a society the paid attention to art, fashion, and etiquette. She got so involved that she almost lost her original purpose of making things better for her people.

It was realistic, but disappointing, that she needed to find a husband to realize her dreams. It was also difficult to know that this was the period before the rise of the Jim Crow laws when the small gains earned by blacks after the Civil War were going to be wiped out. I would be curious for the author to write more about Essie's (Victoria's) life.