Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Kaitlyn Palone is a Librarian, Metadata & Cataloging at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Oyeyemi’s modern fairy tale is at first a novel that seemingly follows a normal high school girl named Perdita Lee and her mother Harriet Lee. Harriet strives to fit in with the other parents desperate to make friends and cannot seem to understand why they don’t love her homemade gingerbread. In order to help her mother in her friendless life, Perdita tries to travel back to Druhástrana -- the perhaps fictional country where her mother grew up – to find her long lost friend Gretel Kercheval. When traveling to Druhástrana proves more difficult than Perdita realizes she finds herself in the hospital.

During her recovery Harriet tells Perdita the story of how she met Gretel and what brought her from Druhástrana to England and the influence her famous gingerbread had on her life. Through the telling of her remarkable story Harriet reflects on family and friendship and how money can influence it all.