Mississippi Library Association

Growing Up in Mississippi

Tucker, Judy H. and Charline R. McCord, eds. Growing Up in Mississippi.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.
203 pp. $25.00 (hardcover)

Before their collaboration on Growing Up in Mississippi, Tucker and McCord met in 1996 at a Eudora Welty festival. Their collaboration previously resulted in the publications Christmas Stories from Mississippiand several editions of Christmas Stories from the South, which also focus on Mississippi life and southern culture.
In Growing Up in Mississippi, Tucker and McCord provide thirty essays by notable, still living Mississippians, such as former Governor William Winter, blues great B.B. King, NFL great Jerry Rice, and former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Fred Banks, that highlight small-town Mississippi life and other aspects of childhood in the South that influenced the development of the successful authors. For instance, Banks describes how his education in Canton influenced his development in a positive manner. Gov. Winter talks about the pets he had and how they shaped his development, while news anchor Maggie Wade Dixon explains how children’s play and parenting has changed since she grew up in Mississippi. The shared stories also reveal the unique nature of southern life for African Americans during the era. King talks of how his Uncle Jack was always singing to ease the burden of hard labor and stress.
Some of the essays are original to the collection, while others are reprinted or excerpted from previously published works. All of the essays, however, offer insight into the unique experiences of the thirty successful adults while they lived in small towns and communities in Mississippi.
Children in contemporary society may not experience the small-town or rural Mississippi existence of their predecessors, but this book offers young people and adults a chance to explore the past and how upbringing and small-town southern life influenced the development of a number of successful adults. The book is also a great option for those whose roots are in the South and who can relate to a former time and way of life. Thus, the book potentially provides an opportunity to educate and teach young adults about southern life and culture in a different era, and provides a chance for adults to relive a former time whose values and influences they may relate to. As such, public libraries, high school libraries, and college libraries should consider purchasing the book.

William L. Bahr
Assistant Director
Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: October 1st, 2008