Manifested Dreams by Yvonne Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amari is a young Africa- American man dealing with the grief of losing his beloved grandmother two weeks before, he misses the stories of her life that she used to tell and now regrets that he didn’t listen to her more and pay more attention, he can still see her in his minds eye and misses her so much so that when he agrees to help to pack his grandmothers belongings up, he is dreading it, but he goes anyway and as he is folding her clothes, he hears someone shout that they found a box of letters, some of them are really old and some of them are more modern. It turns out that these letters are stories, passed down from generation to generation, stories of times past told by the person who lived them, they are the stories which his grandma told them, so when he asks to keep them, everyone readily agrees and Amari cannot wait to read them and learn more.

The first letter is from a woman called Sallie who was a slave on a plantation in Tennessee in the 1860’s, it tells of her first memories and the experiences she went through as a slave, as well as the transition between that and becoming citizens when slavery is abolished. The next story and from is her daughter Isabelle who talks about life in Chicago in the 1920’s where segregation between the races still exists and the troubles it caused between them, as well as the societal upheaval as people fought for equality. Lisa is the next generation of this family to speak and she continues with the fight against segregation and inequality in New York, specifically focussing on school life from the point of view of a child of 5 years old and the rise of Martin Luther King and how his speeches inspired those who lived at the time. Jessica is next with her experiences at college in Atlanta 1990 and how multicultural and interesting life was talking to people from around the world and learning about their lives at the same time as experiencing the changes in her own and finally it is the turn of Amari and their feelings around the events of modern day America.

This collection of stories tells the story of African-Americans from their point of view, not those of the history books, it is emotional, compelling and interesting throughout and inspires you to think about life and how much it has both changed and remained the same, it is thought provoking and well worth a read.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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