Books like The Help by Kathryn Stockett

In 1962 Mississippi, twenty‑two‑year‑old Skeeter Wexler returns to Grant, Mississippi after graduating from Ole Miss. With her mother’s approval still pending, she turns to the secret world of domestic service for inspiration. Aibileen Clark, a seasoned Black maid raising a teenage white child, has lost her son to a trauma ignored by her employers. Minny Jackson, Aibileen’s short‑statured, feisty friend, struggles to keep her place as her former boss’s reputation disintegrates. Together, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny secretly collaborate on a book that exposes the harsh realities of life for Black maids and the social strictures that confine them – a project that endangers each of them. Kathryn Stockett’s novel captures the courage required to cross the invisible lines that separate races, genders, and class in the American South and the enduring impact of women who speak up for justice.

First publish date: 2009