The Help - by Kathryn Stockett (Paperback)

About the Book

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

Book Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestselling novel and basis for the Academy Award-winning film--a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't--nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who's always taken orders quietly, but lately she's unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She's full of ambition, but without a husband, she's considered a failure.

Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...

Review Quotes

Praise for The Help

"The two principal maid characters...leap off the page in all their warm, three dimensional glory...[A] winning novel."--The New York Times

"This could be one of the most important pieces of fiction since To Kill a Mockingbird...If you read only one book...let this be it."--NPR.org

"Wise, poignant...You'll catch yourself cheering out loud."--People

"Graceful and real, a compulsively readable story."--Entertainment Weekly

"A beautiful portrait of a fragmenting world."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"The must-read choice of every book club in the country."--The Huffington Post

"At turns hilarious and heart-warming."--Associated Press

"In a page-turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved, Stockett spins a story of a social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide."--The Washington Post

About the Author

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and creative writing, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for sixteen years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter.