Review: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Published: February 2020



Adunni is 14 years old and lives in a small village in Nigeria with her father and two brothers. The only thing she wants in life is to be able to get her education and teach other girls in her village as well. When her mother passed away, her father promised that he would allow Adunni to get an education, but money talks louder than promises and so Adunni is given as a bride, the third bride at that. When something happens to one of the other wives, Adunni sees her opportunity to change her life, but what she finds isn't much better and she still isn't getting her education. Refusing to give up, she spends the year trying to fulfill her dream. Will she be able to do it?

Another great read for this year. I am glad I never had to be Adunni and my daughters will not have to either. It's a terrible thing to rob someone of an education who desperately wants it. Even though Adunni is young, she sees a lot in her life. She is eager to learn and share what she learns with others. When her father tells her she is going to be married, she is terrified. This is not something she wants and this is not what her mother wanted for her either. She reminds her father of the promise that he made to her mother, but he needs the money he will get for her bride-price in order to continue to live.

Adunni's older brother is working and her friends are excited for her to get married. Her younger brother, is frightened just as Adunni is. But what can they do. Adunni accepts her fate, but still is determined to get what she wants.

This book will make your heart ache for Adunni. Think about your life at 14, if you have a daughter, think about her life at 14. Unfortunately in some parts of the world, things like this are still happening. What can we do to stop it and make sure everyone, boy or girl, man or woman who wants an education is able to get it.


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Review--Shakespeare Saved My Life by Dr. Laura Bates

Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard by Laura  Bates
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Dr. Laura Bates is an English professor at Indiana State University.  She is given to opportunity to teach inmates in Indiana's Correctional System.  She decides that she is going to teach them Shakespeare.  She was discouraged by others thinking that Shakespeare would be too much for inmates to handle.

Dr. Bates was surprised at how well the inmates were able to, not only understand the material, but also apply it to their own lives.  One inmate in particular, Larry Newton, took the material and really changed(saved) his life.  Larry was really able to relate to Shakespeare's works, especially MacBeth.  He used the material to look back on the choices and decisions he had made and was able to better understand the right choices to make.

When I saw this book as part of the Big Library Read, I was very excited.  It seemed like an interesting book that would hold my attention.  These days, I tend to do a lot of reading before bed.  Even though the chapters were no more than a few pages long, I fell asleep frequently.  I thought I would have been able to finish this book in a week because the subject matter was so interesting.  But, I felt as though it continued to go over the same thing.  I enjoyed the subject matter, but I thought I would be a little more engaged.


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