Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes

I loved this book to the moon and back and to the moon and then back. I'm not even kidding you, I finished this thing in one day. So, let me share with you my emotion filled review.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Ten-year-old Sugar lives on the River Road sugar plantation along the banks of the Mississippi. Slavery is over, but laboring in the fields all day doesn't make her feel very free. Thankfully, Sugar has a knack for finding her own fun, especially when she joins forces with forbidden friend Billy, the white plantation owner's son.

Sugar has always yearned to learn more about the world, and she sees her chance when Chinese workers are brought in to help harvest the cane. The older River Road folks feel threatened, but Sugar is fascinated. As she befriends young Beau and elder Master Liu, they introduce her to the traditions of their culture, and she, in turn, shares the ways of plantation life. Sugar soon realizes that she must be the one to bridge the cultural gap and bring the community together. Here is a story of unlikely friendships and how they can change our lives forever.

I just adored Sugar's character. I mean, even from the beginning we as reader's can see she thinks she has it figured out which I loved. She was ignorant to the fact that she had a tough life. It was like she tried to avoid every bad thing in her life and focused on the good. But, you have to give credit to Jewell, she did not try to cover up the cruelty of slavery. Even though Sugar does try to focus on all of the good things in life, Jewell does not try to cover up all of the horrible things slaves were forced to endure. Going with the theme of focusing on the good, I feel like instead of grieving her mother's death, which we know her mother died from the beginning NOT A SPOILER,  she embraced it and celebrated her memory instead. Sugar even dreams of more for not only herself, but everyone surrounding her, which I believe is very big of her at such a young age. I think that overall Sugar is a very likable character.



When the new characters, the Chinese, arrive there are some friendships that begin to develop and more things begin to happen in the book. I also thought that the Chinese culture was a nice addition to an already diverse story. As the story progresses we can really see Sugar grow and become more independent, especially when the Chinese arrive. I think that when she begins to form friendships with the characters, the story becomes more rich and dramatic with each page.

In the end, I loved everything about this book and I would kill for a sequel. I feel that Sugar was developed really well and you really feel for all of the characters. I mean THE FEELS ARE SO REAL RIGHT NOW IT'S NOT EVEN OKAY WHAT IS LIFE. I was like:



Final Rating;

5/5 stars

Thank you all so much for reading today's post. I hope you enjoyed and decide to pick up this book soon because it is so worth it. See you all in my next post!

~Evie

Photo was taken by me.
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