Best New Read by a Regional Author: The Help by Katherine Stockett

It’s no wonder The Help by Kathyrn Stockett won the Great New Reads by Local Authors category. It’s long been a favorite among book clubs and has garnered new attention and sales thanks to the film. In addition, because the book has so many fans, the film locations in Mississippi have become tourist attractions.

The Fondren neighborhood in Jackson, for instance, is home to Brent’s Soda Fountain, where a scene from The Help was filmed. Visitors stop in for the soda fountain’s delicious milkshakes as well as to relive the story. The New Capitol Building and the Mayflower Cafe downtown, also used in the film, attract tourists as well.

Stockett created a buzz when she published The Help in 2009, a novel about two maids and their experiences in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, and Skeeter, an Ole Miss journalism graduate who returns home to write a column for housewives in the Jackson Journal.

Skeeter’s at a loss over her subject matter, having had a maid her whole life. She enlists the help of Aibileen and Minny, learning much more than household tips from the African-American maids. Skeeter ends up publishing an exposé of the lives of the Jackson maids titled “Help by Anonymous,” which has the whole town talking.

The three women characters tell their stories throughout the book, highlighting not only the vast differences between races and the issues surrounding Mississippi segregation, but the intricate bonds established between African-American maids and white children.

The Help was Stockett’s first novel and is based on her experiences growing up in Jackson. It became a best seller, was published in numerous countries and remained on the New York Times best seller list for weeks, a newspaper that deemed the book in its review a “winning novel.”

This past summer the book became a hot weather blockbuster film, reaching even more people with its sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching story. The film was written and directed by Stockett’s childhood friend, Tate Taylor, and was filmed on location in Jackson and Greenwood, Mississippi.

Stockett brought the relationships between white households and African-American maids to the light, and in the process made readers laugh and cry. The Mississippi native may be a great new read this year, but she’s destined to be listed in this category for years to come.

Frequent Country Roads contributor and curator for this topic Cheré Dastugue Coen is an award-winning journalist, instructor of writing, playwright, novelist and cookbook author. Her latest books are Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets, Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Tour of Acadiana and Cooking in Cajun Country. A native of New Orleans, Coen now makes her home in Lafayette from whence she blogs at LouisianaBookNews.blogspot.com and HaveBooksWillTravelLetsEat.blogspot.com.

To see the runners up and read about Cheré Coen who was curator for this category, CLICK HERE.