“Austin captures both the love and fear of her parenting experience in this powerful, spirited narrative.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Publisher’s Weekly
”Timely, insightful memoir”
“Eye-opening, trenchant book, which helps to bolster the scant literature for African American adoptive parents that Austin has pioneered by blogging for publications such as MUTHA Magazine and the Huffington Post. VERDICT: Austin’s experiences, both positive and negative, are recounted in this fast-paced, heartwarming memoir of motherhood and adoption told through an African American lens. Essential for all libraries.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Library Journal - Starred Review
”Heartwarming memoir of
motherhood and adoption”
“Austin closes with first-person interviews with other black mothers who share their individual parenting journeys, helping to further bolster the author’s argument that black motherhood is not monolithic.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Kirkus Reviews - Starred Review
”An essential addition to
the literature in adoption”
Motherhood So White
The Booklist Reader
”Titles we raved about”
“Motherhood So White is a testament to the power of love as a radical act and an urgent call to reclaim motherhood from institutionalized whiteness.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Bookpage
”Testament to the power
of love”
Motherhood So White
Goodreads
”PUT IT ON YOUR SEPTEMBER 2019 reading list, people!”
“I was adopted as well but my parents certainly didn't go through what Nefertiti went through: this is an amazing #bookcub worthy book - you may want to read it twice (as I am planning to do) as it is so shocking in its content that I am gladly adding it to my book club's roster of fall 2019 reads.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
KJ Dell’Antonia, Author of How to be a Happier Parent
”The must-read memoir of 2019”
“A sharp reminder that in our society, parenting is not a color-blind experience.” Read the full review here.
“She finds that the lens through which our culture looks at motherhood only serves to exclude her and the family she wants to build.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Book Riot
”Interrogates stereotypes about single, Black motherhood.”
Motherhood So White
Meg Lemke, Editor in Chief of MUTHA
”A needed and important contribution”
“Austin’s frank voice and determined spirit speak truth to the media powers that present #MotherhoodSoWhite, while relaying her history and thoughtful parenting decisions…a needed and important contribution.”
For the black woman lost in the pale seas of mainstream mothering and adoption stories, Nefertiti Austin and “Motherhood So White” is a boat, life jacket and first mate. She places her unique story in the larger context of parenting while Black, using her family’s history and American history to ground a universal story of a woman finding her place as a mother. And knowing that motherhood can indeed be “so white,” she opens her story to include the stories of other Black adoptive moms.”
Motherhood So White
Anthonia Akinde, Founder of matermea.com
”A universal story”
Motherhood So White
Lara Beth Lillibridge for
#TBR Tuesday
”Highly relatable to
mothers everywhere”
“I learned a lot about my own privilege. It's the start of an important and necessary conversation.” Read the full review here.
Motherhood So White
Keyaira Boone, Essence
”Highlighting the stark whiteness of our society…”
“A new mother struggles to find community in this memoir. Highlighting the stark Whiteness of our society’s parenting resources and navigating the Black community's relationship to adoption…”
Motherhood So White
Deesha Philyaw, Literary Mama
”A powerful memoir”
“As a single Black woman who adopted her children from the foster care system, Nefertiti Austin writes about the erasure of voices of color in media and public discourse about motherhood…”