Morrison, Toni

Contains the text of the acceptance speech made by Toni Morrison on the occasion of her being awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters on November 6, 1996, in which she spoke of the pleasure, difficulties, and necessities of the reading/writing life.

Little Cloud, who does not want to join the other clouds in terrorizing the earth with storms, grows lonely and longs to look closer at mountains and seas, until Lady Wind makes her dream come true.

Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio, takes in a strange girl named Beloved, and finds that she must face her unthinkable past in order to own her present and future.

Pecola Breedlove, a young eleven-year-old black girl, prays everyday for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dreams grow more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity--Publisher.

Eleven-year-old Pecola prayed that she would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting, her father would stop drinking, and her brother would stop running away.

Children spend the day with their grandmother, who ignores their mother's carefully planned schedule in favor of activities that are much more fun.