About I Am Not Your Baby Mother
I Am Not Your Baby Mother (IANYBM) is not an autobiography. It is somewhere in between. It’s part bio part social commentary with some stats to drive home the message. I was grateful that Candice included statistical evidence. In the black community, we are used to people question our comments and asking for evidence.
IANYBM is a thought-provoking, urgent and inspirational guide to life as a black mother. It explores the various stages in between pregnancy and waving your child off at the gates of primary school, while facing hurdles such as white privilege, racial micro-aggression and unconscious bias at every point. Candice does so with her trademark sense of humour and refreshing straight-talking, and the result is a call-to-arms that will allow mums like her to take control, scrapping the parenting rulebook to mother their own way.
My Thoughts about IANYBM
IANYBM is for anyone who wants to understand the lived experience of black mothers in the UK. From the first page I was hooked. I read it in a few days and that’s a record for me. Far from making me feel depressed, I felt liberated, understood and loved. As the words poured of the page it was like having a conversation with a good friend, her struggle was mine. As Arabella (played by Michaela Cole) says to her bestie Terry (played by Weruche Opia) in the BBC drama I May Destroy You:
‘Your birth is my birth; your death is my death’
Candice knows the struggles of black mothers in Britain. She’s made experience poetic; her tone and descriptions are melodic.
Why you should read IANYBM
5 reasons to read, I Am Not Your Baby Mother :
- You will feel understood
- You will feel liberated
- You will get to know your sisters in the human race better
- It’s like a beginner’s guide to black mum life in Britain because it covers the concerns of black mothers from conception to the school gate (culture, finances, health, knife crime, school, sex and more)
- It clearly demonstrates why Black Lives Matter is not a moment
Book Details
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Quercus (28 May 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1529406277
ISBN-13: 978-1529406276
The hardcover is available on Amazon RRP £13.49 You can find Candice on her Instagram account , she also curates the account Make Motherhood Diverse.
You need this book in your life, trust me, buy it for yourself or give it to friend. Have read it already? What are your thoughts?
Please comment below.
I haven’t read it yet but after reading your review I think I will read it. Books like these are needed in our community. We need to feel understood.
Thanks for stopping by Sandi. I think will really enjoy reading it, if that’s the right thing to say about a book like that. When you do let me know what you think.