Joanne Provo

What Have I Been Reading?

Kin

Two motherless girls are raised as "cradle" sisters by relatives. While they start their lives sharing everything, their paths diverge as Vernice makes her way to college in Atlanta and Annie sets off in search of the mother who abandoned her. They both face the challenges of growing up as young black women in the 1950's and 1960's, yet under very different circumstances. Told in alternating chapters from their individual points of view, they each make their own way while being bound to each.

When God Was A Rabbit

Eleanor is a young girl who doesn't think God loves her, so she names her pet rabbit God. The rabbit, however, is fairly inconsequential to the story. Instead, it is about the friends and family experiences that shape our younger selves. Set in England and NY, during 1968 and 1995, we follow the complications in the lives of Eleanor, her brother and their best friends. Discovering how the strength, hope and disappointments of those early years influenced the people they became.

The House on Rondo

This young adult novel describes the decimation of the Rondo neighborhood in the early 1960's as witnessed by a 13-year-old girl spending the summer with her grandparents in the heart of the upheaval. The tightknit community was fractured with the building of Hwy 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul. There were those who accepted their fate and those who fought it, but all felt the heartbreak, loss and consequences that still linger today. The houses themselves share their stories too.