Bøker av Frances Smith

Wrought by a childhood replete with trying circumstances and telling experiences (conveyed in Frances Smith's earlier book), and in tandem with resultant beliefs and attitudes she held toward herself and the world she was about to enter, the commencement of legal adulthood also removed any buttressing protection minority provided. Too many confused and self-critical assessments would ill-serve this demoiselle. In time, those same assessments would transform into extremely harmful and life-threatening situations. Surviving would become a lifestyle for the author, which would shape not only her world but that of those whom she held most dear.Ms. Smith's adulthood was remarkable because of the duality consistently displayed between her professional abilities and achievements and her personal descent into depreciation and decline. This descent was birthed by a mentally imprinted sense of desperation inseminated by prevailing dogma, the flawed conclusions of youthful minds, and unattended hurts and breaches.This tale is a cautionary account. Similar to the brutality of a gauntlet one is forced to run, a few key choices in the life of this young woman vaulted her into a sort of awful test. Not failing would require overcoming deeply rooted beliefs and fears that sucked her backward in a downward spiral. Failing the test would mean no escape from an existence that was the antithesis of living. Scores of challenges the author faced in her adult life were nearly fantastical, so grueling and perverse were they. If any hope of victory existed, this woman's constitution must contain an extraordinary will to persevere and survive. Would the author discover that quality within herself, or would defeat ultimately claim her? This narrative relates what could be argued as the predictable plunge the author made into the depths, given the memories, messages, and conclusions in which she was cloaked as she debuted as an adult, already wearied from her life up to that point. This tale also abounds in efforts equally mesmerizing, which the principal made to try to save herself. There is no way to imagine the unspeakable journey that was Ms. Smith's adulthood. This story is simply a must read.

Few films in the twenty-first century have represented coming-of-age with the beauty and brutality of Bande de Filles (or Girlhood). This book provides an in-depth examination of Céline Sciamma's film, focusing on its portrayal of female adolescence in contemporary Paris.Motivated by the absence of black female characters in French cinema, Sciamma represents the lives of figures that have passed largely unnoticed on the big screen. While observing the girls' tough circumstances, Sciamma's film emphasises the joy and camaraderie found in female friendships. This book places Girlhood in its cinematic as well as its sociocultural context. Pop music, urban violence, and female friendships are all considered here in a book that draws out the complexity of Sciamma's deceptively simple portrayal of coming-of-age.Thoughtful, concise, and deeply contemporary, this book is perfect for students, scholars, and general readers interested in youth cultures, European cinema, gender, and sexuality.

As the author's childhood tumbles from her memory onto the pages of print, the reader is privy to all sorts of surprising revelations. Be prepared to chuckle with glee, feel your mouth gape reading about situations too weird to be untrue, wince as your heart breaks in sadness and anger over sordid situations, and shake your head both in disbelief and even perfect understanding of unusual childhood tales. Between the covers of the book, the author's very direct style in sharing the goings-on around her that profoundly affected her talks to the reader personally and even bluntly. As the years pass, the toll from various elements in her life becomes clearer and grows higher.The book's title was chosen because it chronicles from a curious angle a young girl's memories of growing up. The story's framework of recollections connected to given residences, the number of those residences, and the regularity with which this family migrated from one to another was interesting from the storytelling perspective and fortunate for Frances and all her readers. That her memories were mentally magnetized, that they attached and were thereby preserved according to the various times and places Frances called home, was an innovative, efficient, and effective writing device.Use of the rabbit hole idiom was spot-on, because despite growing older, taller, and maturing in ways (growing up), simultaneously an ominous, downward momentum was also steadily gaining more of a foothold in the life of this young person. Left unchecked, this destructive force would increasingly result in a stranger, more problematic, and chaotic life, an exquisite analogy provided by Lewis Carroll.The story shared within this book is a poignant and absorbing account as seen through the eyes of the child who lived it. Much is revealed throughout this narrative, and although the book ends, the story obviously continues. The indubitable question is not written but silently screams, what happens next?

Reconsidering tropes such as the male juvenile delinquent figure, the makeover and the teen vampire, the book uses a series of detailed case studies to provide an innovative overview of the Hollywood teen movie and its construction of teen identity.