Book Review: The Kitchen House

My Mom sent me back from our ski trip with this book and told me to start reading it immediately because she knew I would love it.  She was right.  The book follows Lavinia, an Irish girl brought to America aboard a Virginia tobacco farmer's ship at the age of 7.  With no family, she is sent to live as an indentured servant with the slaves.  Although she is white, the only family she knows is that of the black men and women who work the plantation, which pulls her in opposing directions as she grows older and straddles both the white and black worlds.  I particularly liked that this book was able to show two points of view.  Most books and movies about slavery times follow either the black or white side, but this book was unique in that it followed both.   The author, Kathleen Grissom, is no Southerner, but it seems she did her research and I can respect that.  4 out of 5 stars.