Her beloved son Treelore died a few years ago, and the white child Mae Mobley that Aibileen watches everyday is learning racist ideas at school. Aibileen, however, has had sadness of her own. This is 1960s Mississippi, and it is illegal for blacks and whites to discuss racial issues. When Skeeter asks Aibileen to record her experiences working in white homes, Aibileen is afraid. She makes the decision to reach out to these black maids and discover their stories. She also realizes that many white families have 'Constantines,' and many of them are not treated well. As her hurt from Constantine's absence grows, she remembers what this special woman meant to her. Black women are expected to watch and raise the white children, the prizes of white parents, but they are unable to use the same cutlery or bathroom as the whites. As she spends time with her childhood friends, married women with children and black maids of their own, Skeeter begins to observe the contradictions that surround her. Skeeter - tall, awkward, single - returns home from Ole Miss to realize that the woman who raised her, the family's black maid Constantine, is gone. In a society where hierarchy is ardently defended, injustice is felt by people from all walks of life. As Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny inherently understand, it is not just the black women who are kept from Jackson's inner circle.

Though Stockett's insightful novel primarily meditates on the domestic relationships between blacks and whites, it also implicitly analyzes the impact of a discriminatory society on all involved. With vibrant language, memorable characters, and excellent pacing, The Help contemplates what it means to live in the trenches of injustice. They soon realize that the ties that bind in this hierarchical society are not straightforward or clear-cut. They band together to effect change, but their efforts result in something far different than what they originally expected. Each woman's life has been difficult in its own way, but all three see the stratified, racist society of Jackson, Mississippi as partly responsible. At the center of the novel are Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny, three women who have grown dissatisfied with the way things are. Kathyrn Stockett's compelling debut novel The Help investigates the relationship between black and white women in 1960s Mississippi. Winner of BookBrowse's 2009 Reader Awards

The Help by Kathryn Stockett