When the school bell sounds its final ring, We pack up the Rabbit and head Down South, Where we will ride and walk, up and across, The flat, square city blocks of Charlotte. When the restless claim on her home overwhelms, Grandma sends us outside to pluck from The bounty from her summer garden, The … Continue reading Sticky Sweet Reflections on Summers Past
The latter third of this review of Small Great Things contains limited spoilers. On Tuesday night, I finished reading the powerful and popular novel Small Great Things, which has been taking up a significant amount of my headspace since I first began it almost a week earlier. Thanks to how meticulously bestselling author Jodi Picoult got into … Continue reading Navigating Nuanced Perspectives on Power, Privilege and Race Is No Small Thing in Jodi Picoult’s Popular Novel
Calling My Name by Liara Tamani is a lyrical and sensuous story–at times, reading more like poetry than prose. A richly detailed narrative immerses you immediately in the life experiences of Taja Brown: from neighborhood kickball games and sibling rivalry to tumultuous first love and the promise of life to come after high school. While … Continue reading Calling My Name Relays The Sensuous Journey To Self-Love And Empowered Spirituality
As the first stop on my reunion tour of Judy Blume’s classic children/YA novels, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was a really sweet–albeit somewhat outdated–dash down memory lane. It tells the tale of Margaret, a 12-year-old city girl who must adjust to the suburbs of New Jersey and make new friends, while on … Continue reading Rereading Childhood Classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Renee
When I was a child, I lived and breathed fiction, inventing detailed characters and complex worlds everywhere I turned. In my fiction, I was a ballerina, a mini Indiana Jones or a resistance fighter. I was an only child growing up with a single father, an orphan raising my three siblings, or I was the … Continue reading How the Imaginary Lives of Childhood Helped Me Reinvent My Adult Reality
As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my childhood best friend gifted me a masterclass with Judy Blume for my 40th birthday. As part of our first assignment, we were asked to write a letter as our childhood self. I've written letters to my childhood self from my present-day self, and vice versa, each … Continue reading A Letter From My 10-Year-Old Self
Renée Can Writes 