BOY, SNOW, BIRD a Tale as Old as Time-A MUST READ

BOY, SNOW, BIRD by Helen Oyeyemi, winner of a Somersest Maugham Award ('10) is young girl's coming of age story that ingeniously appropriates the Snow White fable to disclose the evil spell hatred & racism casts.   Boy, Arturo's wife, is mother to Bird and stepmother to Snow.  Snow is the beautiful, enchanting & fair skinned daughter from Arturo Whitman's 1st marriage. Upon the birth of Bird, Boy banishes Snow from their home to be raised far away.  Boy is now the wicked stepmother despite having escaped from a torturous upbringing by her abusive father, the rat catcher.  Bird is a mystical free spirit who communes with spiders & is unable to find her reflection in mirrors.  Bird, a child of white parents in a predominantly white town, is dark skinned.  This is an elegant & disturbing coming of age story of Bird.  It is written partly in fable form which sheds harsh light on racism & prejudice that holds blacks inferior to whites.  Mirror on the wall, who is fairest of them all?  Oyeyemi's poetic writing & story telling call to mind, Hurston, Angelou, Ellison & Twain.  Still, this is a unique and powerful novel with imagery that reflect & confront social issues that persist today. Oyeyemi's Snow White story is also a Beauty & the Beast tale with hope for a time when people "will not be judged by the color their skin but by the content of their character." (King, Jr.)