Larissa's Breadbook: Ten Incredible Southern Women and Their Stories of Courage, Adventure, and Discovery - Softcover

Johnson-Coleman, Lorraine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558538453 ISBN 13: 9781558538450

Publisher: Thomas Nelson, 2001

Synopsis

Do you ever wonder what makes the South one of the most incredible places on Earth? As Larissa discovers, it's the awe-inspiring women. In this engaging story, ten remarkable women from rich and varied cultures share their words, their wit, their wisdom, and their lives.

The language of these women "is colorful and nuanced and often poetic, and the folks whose lives the storyteller enters and exits are complicated and comic, and at the same time often tragic. This community, woven together by the storyteller's enchantments...is moving and memorable." Lois Parkinson Zamora, professor at University of Houston, made those comments about the stories in Just Plain Folks, Lorraine Johnson-Coleman's earlier work. But they could just as easily have been written about the characters in Larissa's BreadBook.

About this title

About the Author:

Lorraine Johnson-Coleman, a frequent contributor on NPR's Morning Edition, is the author of Just Plain Folks, a Literary Guild selection. She has been described as "a writer and performer or rare talent" and "an American National treasure." Not only is she a fabulous performer, a wise and witty speaker, and a gifted teacher, she is also a warm and caring human being. Lorraine-Johnson Coleman lives in Savannah, Georgia.

From Library Journal:

For this book, Johnson-Coleman, whose earlier Just Plain Folks grew out of an NPR series, created the character of Larissa, a smart 13-year-old who helps out "the ladies" at the senior center one afternoon in preparation for a bake sale at her school; she then collects their stories and recipes for her report. This device allows the author to show that "Southern folks are so much more than...black people and white people only," as her "Miss Bessie" says. The ladies include, among others, a sharecropper's daughter, a Cherokee Indian, an Italian woman, and Lady Patricia, who gives tea parties at the center; the recipes, some 150 in all, are from the various cultures they represent, from Benne Wafers and Fry Bread to Irish Bannock and Breadsticks. Johnson-Coleman's text is readable and the recipes fine; it's perhaps unfair to criticize the book for what it is not, but real oral histories might have worked more effectively to make her point. Nevertheless, this is an interesting collection of stories and recipes, and the author's earlier book was popular. For larger and special collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1558538453
• ISBN 13: 9781558538450
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256