The Help, by Kathryn Stockett tells about the lives of three women living in Jackson, Mississippi, around the time of the civil rights movement. Aibileen and Minny, two of the many black maids, work hard and fear losing their jobs while dealing with racial issues. On the other hand, we have Skeeter, a young, white woman who dreams of becoming a famou writer. When the three of them come together, even though it is very dangerous, they write an inspiring book called, "The Help", which takes an impact on the community they live in.
Aibileen is now taking care of her seventeenth white child, Mae Mobley, who Aibileen assumes she loves more than her own mother, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt, who is her boss. Minny, on the other hand, is a great cook, but also occasionally back-talks Mrs.Holbrook, who is her boss. Mrs. Hilly fires Minny for something terrible she had done to her, and Minny goes out to find another job, which is really hard because Mrs. Hilly already told most of Jackson what had happened. Miss Skeeter is fresh out of college, ready to start a new job, but her mother insists she find a husband first. Disregarding her mother, Skeeter gets a job at the Jackson journal as a writer for the Miss Myrna column. In this column, Skeeter has to answer questions about cleaning, which she knows nothing about, so she asks Mrs. Leefolt if Aibileen can help her write the answers. After a couple of weeks of the Miss Myrna questions, Skeeter as an idea to write about what it's like to be a black maid in living in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. She asks Aibileen to help her write the book and ask other maids to help also. After a lot of thinking, Aibileen finally agrees. Soon, Minny agrees to help write also, and then they soon have plenty of maids that want to help write the book also. Before the book is released, Minny asks to put in a specific detail, that she swore to never speak of, that might be able to keep the book anonymous. At the end of the novel, the book is released and things begin to change and take effect in good and bad ways
This is the only book that Kathryn Stockett has written, but if she had other books, I would definitely read them. Something about her life-like characters and strong use of words makes me want to keep reading. I recommend this book for anyone that is interested in an amazing book about historical fiction.