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A review by elisabethshelby
Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America by C. Nicole Mason
4.0
Ah, this book! You need to read this book!
I have attempted to read this book on three other occasions before work and life got in the way and I'd have to return it to the library. This time, I was determined, and once I started it took me only about 24 hours to finish.
This book speaks SO MUCH to me, about a world I knew existed but never truly understood. I grew up in the 1990s, in an all white neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. There was poverty, and we saw it, but it never touched me personally. As a child, I did not understand the advantages that had been given to me, the opportunities I was offered simply because I was raised in the family I was raised in.
This book really helps an outsider to understand how hard it is to break the poverty cycle. Dr. Mason shows it beautifully through her own choices - deep down she knew many of the choices her friends and family were making were the wrong choices, but pressure, and loss of hope sometimes encouraged her to make the same choices. The system set up to equally educate all students did not offer her the same experiences I had. I am not sure at what point I was told, "To get into college, you must take the SATs". I just know that I sort of always knew that. It put me at an advantage over other students, like Dr. Mason, who had no idea. They were always behind the eight-ball, so to speak.
The ending of this story is bittersweet. You want to be happy for the writer, and to say to yourself, yes, she made it, she fought the poverty cycle and she won. Yet at the same time, you see all of those she left behind, still stuck in the endless cycle, and you realize just how much is left to be done.
This book is excellent, and you should read it.
I have attempted to read this book on three other occasions before work and life got in the way and I'd have to return it to the library. This time, I was determined, and once I started it took me only about 24 hours to finish.
This book speaks SO MUCH to me, about a world I knew existed but never truly understood. I grew up in the 1990s, in an all white neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. There was poverty, and we saw it, but it never touched me personally. As a child, I did not understand the advantages that had been given to me, the opportunities I was offered simply because I was raised in the family I was raised in.
This book really helps an outsider to understand how hard it is to break the poverty cycle. Dr. Mason shows it beautifully through her own choices - deep down she knew many of the choices her friends and family were making were the wrong choices, but pressure, and loss of hope sometimes encouraged her to make the same choices. The system set up to equally educate all students did not offer her the same experiences I had. I am not sure at what point I was told, "To get into college, you must take the SATs". I just know that I sort of always knew that. It put me at an advantage over other students, like Dr. Mason, who had no idea. They were always behind the eight-ball, so to speak.
The ending of this story is bittersweet. You want to be happy for the writer, and to say to yourself, yes, she made it, she fought the poverty cycle and she won. Yet at the same time, you see all of those she left behind, still stuck in the endless cycle, and you realize just how much is left to be done.
This book is excellent, and you should read it.