An inspiring read for young activists; a primer for parents.
A single mother and her two teenage daughters mix a family memoir with a manual on living a socially conscious life.
The collaboration of Bazinet (Finding My Way, 2016, etc.) and her daughters, Hailey Briggs (co-author: Making It in High Heels, 2015) and debut author Samantha Briggs, is “a guide, a resource, and an example of how one family went about ‘being the change they wished to see.’ ” Over 14 chapters, the authors relate personal stories and lessons learned, with the aim of enlightening and steering others toward advocacy. All three have impressive track records. Bazinet has a background in education, psychotherapy, and life coaching. Both of her daughters have received awards and scholarships for their community, social justice, and environmental work, largely through their involvement with the charity Free the Children. Each author writes sections of the book from her own perspective. For example, Hailey shares her fundraising efforts, at age 13, to build a school in Kenya. Samantha writes about her volunteer work at a seniors’ home. Bazinet adds “a parent’s perspective,” explaining how she aided her daughters or, in many cases, allowed them to try to learn on their own. As she watched Hailey stumble through the opening of her first public speech, for instance, Bazinet wanted to help but ended by doing “what was best for her: nothing!” Bazinet also offers useful tips for other families: “Living life consciously is about taking control of your life,” she writes and briefly discusses topics including practicing meditation, instituting dietary changes, establishing family values and personal goals, and embracing both accomplishment and failure. Like its authors, the book is confident and ambitious. All three are clear and earnest writers, and Hailey and Samantha, given their age, make astute observations about the world and themselves. In fact, their bracing stories of venturing—young, smart, and well-intentioned—into the world are the book’s greatest strength and will likely interest similar-minded teenagers. But the work is so far-ranging in its scope that some of the advice may strike some parents as too vague or facile, especially families with more teen rebellion than seems apparent in the authors’ home.
An inspiring read for young activists; a primer for parents.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-9065-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.
An essayist and novelist turns her attention to the heartache of a friend’s suicide.
Crosley’s memoir is not only a joy to read, but also a respectful and philosophical work about a colleague’s recent suicide. “All burglaries are alike, but every burglary is uninsured in its own way,” she begins, in reference to the thief who stole the jewelry from her New York apartment in 2019. Among the stolen items was her grandmother’s “green dome cocktail ring with tiers of tourmaline (think kryptonite, think dish soap).” She wrote those words two months after the burglary and “one month since the violent death of my dearest friend.” That friend was Russell Perreault, referred to only by his first name, her boss when she was a publicist at Vintage Books. Russell, who loved “cheap trinkets” from flea markets, had “the timeless charm of a movie star, the competitive edge of a Spartan,” and—one of many marvelous details—a “thatch of salt-and-pepper hair, seemingly scalped from the roof of an English country house.” Over the years, the two became more than boss and subordinate, teasing one another at work, sharing dinners, enjoying “idyllic scenes” at his Connecticut country home, “a modest farmhouse with peeling paint and fragile plumbing…the house that Windex forgot.” It was in the barn at that house that Russell took his own life. Despite the obvious difference in the severity of robbery and suicide, Crosley fashions a sharp narrative that finds commonality in the dislocation brought on by these events. The book is no hagiography—she notes harassment complaints against Russell for thoughtlessly tossed-off comments, plus critiques of the “deeply antiquated and often backward” publishing industry—but the result is a warm remembrance sure to resonate with anyone who has experienced loss.
A marvelously tender memoir on suicide and loss.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780374609849
Page Count: 208
Publisher: MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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