The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

In 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, Skeeter Phelan is about to become an outcast. She has returned from college just filled with ideas about fairness and the difference between right and wrong. She soon finds herself a job and realizes she knows absolutely nothing about the topic she is supposed to use for her column. The only solution is to befriend the help, but she can't possibly do that in her mother's home. It doesn't take long before she has an idea that will change the lives of everyone she knows, if she and her new friend have the courage to go through with it.

The Help is the story of three women looking at the world in which they live and feeling as though something is terribly wrong. This is a well-written story that leaves the reader desperate to know more about the lives of nearly all the characters. It's funny when you realize you are so wrapped up in the characters experiences you almost forget what you already know about history and get surprised by one or two events.