My Name Is Harlem

by Mary Wagner

Harlem Rose O'Brannan is a biracial child, being raised by a single mother in Bronx, New York in the 1950's. The ideas instilled in Harlem by her mother were to get a good education, work hard for what you want in life, to be an honest person and to be proud of who you are. Above all else, her mother never wanted her to give up her dream of becoming a doctor. Harlem prayed for her and her mother to be able to leave the projects one day and to be away from the gang violence and random shootings. Harlem's prayer got answered, but it wasn't the answer she prayed for. Because of the compassion and acceptance of a nun and a New York City Police Officer, she was saved and escaped the foster care system. Harlem's grandfather, whom neither she nor he ever knew each other even existed, was later found. Harlem went to live with her grandfather in Kolter, West Virginia. There were several challenges for her to face in this segregated town, but she accepted them with dignity and self-respect.

180 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland almost sixty-eight years ago. I had two loving and hard-working parents and a wonderful brother and sister. I grew up when gasoline was twenty-five cents a gallon and even then, twenty-five cents was hard to come by. If you were under 12 years old, it only cost a quarter to go to the movies and you got another quarter for popcorn, a soda, and a candy bar. We were happy without computers, cell phones, twitter, facebook and all the other "have to have things" that the kids can't live without today. We played marbles, baseball, caught lightning bugs, colored on a rainy day, traded comic books, went to school dances on Friday nights. These things didn't cost anything; just do it! We went to Sunday school and mass on Sundays.
We knew our grandparents as well as our parents and spent time - quality time with them. Both of my grandmothers lived with us. I thank God I asked them to tell me their stories. I have so many in my mind even though they have been gone for so many years. My parents couldn't afford to send us to college, so when I got a job I started going at night when I was twenty-one at Essex Community College. I took time off to raise my son, started back to work and went to Dundalk Community College part time and got an Associates degree in 1995. I was forty-nine years old- but I did it. I retired from Lockheed Aerospace after 25 years of service and now live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I love the peacefulness of the country and still am only ten minutes from Ocean City.
I love to write and am in the process of writing another book. Anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

Reviews

[Char29 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, loved the characters and the time frame. What a struggle for Harlem, not knowing her father and then loosing her mother. I got a good feeling throughout the book that she would be successful in the end. This first time author did an amazing job with this storyline. It made me think of things from my childhood good and bad.
This would be an excellent book for pre-teens especially today with all that is going on in our crazy world with race issues. Cudo's to Mary Wagner, so looking forward to your next book. Well done.

[Kelly Durham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sweet story about growing up with many obstacles as a young biracial girl in the Bronx then being forced to move to a very rural town with family she never knew existed. I really enjoyed this book and it would be a wonderful book for young adults /older kids. It shows that tolerance and love can overcome some of life's most difficult situations. It was a touching story about family and human kindness . A very easy and wonderful read!!!!

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great story. Left no questions unanswered. I definitely felt like I was right there with the characters and really understood each of them. I think this book is perfect for juvenile/preteen readers. Quick read and fast moving story. I won this book through the goodreads First reads. I'm passing it on to my daughter to read next! :)

[Lee-ann Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

Great read showed how love see no ones skin color...this was a very touching story and it was well written

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book as a FirstRead.

The plot of this story was intriguing. A biracial girl is being raised in New York City by her mother in the 1950s, until her mother dies in the crossfire of a gang. After spending a few months in a monastery, police are finally able to track down the existence of her grandfather, and she is sent to live with him in West Virginia.

I really wanted to like this story, but for some reason, I had trouble getting into it. There were a few parts of the story I didn't find plausible, such as when the grandpa goes to a man's house, pours out his whiskey, and tells him to stop drinking, and the man thanks him and agrees to stop drinking straightaway. There were also a handful of spelling and grammatical errors throughout the book.

[Sandy Costanza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book as a first reads and enjoyed the story. Racial segregation and prejudice are almost palpable in the characters. My one complaint is in the writer's style which takes away from the impact of the story as she frequently changes tense in her prose. I found it distracting and somewhat annoying.

[Mary Tharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raising a biracial girl in NYC was intriguing. After her mother was killed and not knowing her father, she ends up living with her grandfather. Kept my interest throughout the story.