A Review of What a Mother's Love Don't Teach You

IN HER DEBUT NOVEL, What a Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You (Virago, 2022), Jamaican author Sharma Taylor explores life in the poverty-stricken area of Lazarus Gardens, going beyond the poverty and violence to reveal characters with dreams, aspirations and disappointments that speak to their humanity in the midst of chaos, corruption and danger.

The Light of Dawn

Saint Lucian children's author Dawn French and her good friend Peanut.

 

AMONG THE JEWELS that make up the Caribbean archipelago is Saint Lucia—the Helen of the West—so called because, like Helen of Troy, it is very beautiful. It is also home of the famous Pitons and two Nobel laureates. It further boasts an imaginative and accomplished children’s author by the name of Dawn French who is the creator of the Peanut series, a collection of stories about a fictitious little girl nicknamed Peanut, whose actual name is Sabine Clementine James. 

A Trip Well Made: for A.N., Karl and William Seymour

Barbadian spoken-word artist Adrian Green: following in the tradition of pioneering Bajan writers A.N. Forde, W.S. Arthur and Karl Sealy.  Photo Copyright © 2013 by Fresh Milk Barbados.

 

WINNING WORDS: Tameisha's Lesson (Excerpt)

 

Chapter Two
School Life

“Anna Puckering?”

“Present.”

“Danika Reece?”

“Here.”

“Tameisha Rouse?...  Tameisha Rouse?”

“She isn’t here yet, ma’am.”

“This is only the first day of the week,” Miss Jones said in annoyance. “Nearest to the church, always late for chapel.”