Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was born in an eighteen-room house owned by my mother's sister Rose and her husband. After a couple of weeks, my mother took me back to her place in Jamaica, Queens, where we lived with my four-year-old sister, Marion, my mother's mother, her three sisters, and a Swedish carpenter named Mack. #2 I was raised by my mother, who was very cold. I never got a kiss, a hug, or a compliment. I wanted people to tell me that I was good, but instead, I heard laughter and applause. #3 I had to make my own entertainment as a kid. I would listen to the voices below my window, and know what that meant. There was going to be a fight down there, and I would always identify with the loser. #4 My mother was coldhearted and selfish, and her sisters weren't much better. I remember being lied to by my aunt Pearlie when I was four. She said I could go to the movies with my sister, but when I came back out, she and Marion were gone. I stood there crying and yelling, Pearlie, I washed my hands and face real good.