High in her attic room, she could still hear the noises of
the “uncles” that her Mamma was entertaining but the
“uncles” were all white men, which made no sense and Essie
hated it. It should’ve come as no surprise to anybody that
she wanted to go live at Ma Clara’s house, where she never
had to worry about food or “uncles.”
At 13, Essie had enough.
Ma Clara had helped nourish her mind and her soul, and Essie
knew the time was right for her to leave Mamma by taking a
job at Abby Bowfield’s boardinghouse. There, she made her
first friend and she dared to dream of a happy future – as
if, for a girl whose Mamma escaped from slavery, that wasn’t
impossible.
And then the impossible happened.
Miss Dorcas Vashon, who had Room 4 at Miss Abby’s on
permanent hold, took a liking to Essie and made her an offer
she couldn’t refuse: She’d take Essie away from Savannah and
make her into a lady, teach her, form her, correct her
speech and fix her slouch. In exchange, Essie would have to
give up everything she’d ever known.
And so, a girl named Essie stepped away from Miss Abby’s
boardinghouse one day, and became Victoria.
At 18, Victoria tried not to look back at her life. Doing so
was “excessively ill-bred” but she couldn’t help it. With
the guidance of Dorcas Vashon, she’d reinvented herself, but
there were so many things she didn’t know: how, for example,
could a new lady keep an old woman in her heart? How can a
lady remember where she came from, without ruining where she
was going?
How could Victoria keep living the lie she’d been given?
Absolutely, Inventing Victoria is a familiar story
with a different twist: more than a century ago, it was a
play. Half that, it was a movie. Now, this Pygmalion-like
tale is set in the years after the Civil War, and your teen
is going to love it.
Not only is it a great story, author Tonya Bolden also
creates settings that invite historical figures to pass
through her characters’ lives. Frederick Douglass is here.
James Wormley is mentioned, as is O.S.B. Wall and John
Mercer Langston, and Elizabeth Keckley makes dresses for
Victoria. These people flow through the tale like it’s an
everyday thing to 19th-century folks but for modern readers,
Bolden makes their presence feel like visits from royalty.
Relevant, timely, and quietly informative, for a
12-to-17-year-old who enjoys gentle adventure plus romance
wrapped in a fairy tale, this book is perfect. For her,
Inventing Victoria is a book she’ll want to be near.
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