The 4th book is Hey, Brown Girl, a  young adult novel, by Janay Harden.

About the Author

Janay attended Rutgers University where she received a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Social Work. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, School Social Worker and Mental Health Therapist. To date, she has held many titles but her favorites are mentor, mental health advocate, and melanin story teller. Janay is native to South Jersey where she resides with her daughter. Her interests include Astrology, spa days, and crabs. She is the Author of Hey, Brown Girl, Forty-two Minutes, and Someone More Like Myself.

Book Look

The book cover makes a bold statement with vibrant colors and a distinct style that highlights the young adult essence of the novel. The co-hosts discuss how this book reminded them of the cool girl group aesthetic and old school reading days with their friends. 

Bookmark

This time around the book didn’t have a strong narrative or storyline. Instead for the co-host the book felt like one large therapy session due to characters constantly dealing with trauma. But, Sam and Felicia still found a few good quotes to share. 

• Exhale the stress, the anger. The things that keep our body in survival mode. Let’s exhale those things. We are loved, we are honored, we are celebrated…just breathe pg 127
• – they taught their daughter to be good enough for White people. They taught her to demand an opportunity at their table, and when she finally got that opportunity, she had to be better than them. Blair just wanted to build her own table. […] Blair didn’t want to beat them. She wanted to create her own path and something that would last. For her, that started first with a strong foundation and family. Pg 136 
• When you build a circle of women who protect you and make you better, well, what’s greater than support, baby? Keep them around, they your people. Pg 182 

POV

This time around neither co-host felt a strong connection to the characters. Written from different points of view, the novel included too many points of view. In general Sam selected the entire family unit and how they functioned as her favorite part. Especially being able to see how they all receive happiness ever after. Felicua chose Blaire the mother as her favorite character due to the fact that they had similar upbringings. 

Deep Dive

This novel clearly conveys the way trauma affects the entire family. From the very beginning symptoms of trauma are introduced. In addition, this novel incorporates a message about the power of friendship, Black pride, and family dynamics into the story of a young Black girl growing up. The co-host wished for more character development and the ability to properly unpack all of the generational trauma. This wasn’t Sam and Felicia’s favorite novel but it does a good job of normalizing therapy for Black people and families.