GED Stories relays the journeys of four Black women who left high school before completing their studies, but returned to the formal classroom to finish their secondary education. A comparison of the four case studies helps to highlight the similarities in the women’s determination to overcome the stigma of living without their high school certificate. The women describe their struggles with low self-esteem and their slow rise to confidence in themselves and their academic ability. Throughout the book there is a strong thread of hope and celebration of the victory over the challenges that being poor, Black, and female represented in the twentieth century.

The Author: Joanne Kilgour Dowdy is Associate Professor of Adolescent/Adult Literacy at Kent State University, Ohio. She has co-edited (with Lisa Delpit) The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. Dowdy’s articles on language arts and arts integration in the classroom have appeared in national and international journals. She has also written and performed her autobiographical work, Between Me and the Lord, in the United States and the Caribbean.