That Mean Old Yesterday

I found it hard to put the book down. Disturbing. Heartwrenching."Makes me want to holler" --- but inspiring!! I met Stacey when she was 14 and just starting out at The Lawrenceville School. She was our babysitter. My husband is part of her story. I knew her life was challenging but I didn't know the depth until reading her book. Stacey adds a historical perspective to her story which opens the possibility of great discussions and conversations. This is an important book. Pass it on..

That Mean Old Yesterday is not just another book about child abuse, a difficult childhood, or a woman who has prevailed. It is a phenomenally written book about a remarkable woman; a woman who has defied odds and stereotypes. A woman who has achieved more in her 29 years than most people achieve in a lifetime...and she truly achieved everything with her will, determination, courage and stamina. Stacey Patton also encourages readers to look deeply into our past, our heritage, by entwining chapters of her life with chapters that deal with history: slavery, slave/master association and slave families. This book was difficult to read because of Patton's authentic and realistic accounts, but it was even more difficult to put down for the same reasons. This book will empower anyone who reads it. A must read for Book Discussion Groups! A must read for young adults...a MUST READ for all!

That Mean Old Yesterday, by Stacey Patton, is a wonderfully written, if heart wrenching, memoir of growing up in New Jersey as a African American child given up for adoption and of the sad consequences of very poor oversight on the part of public agencies. Ms. Patton, however, doesn't write for pity - she writes with a passion and a journalist's eye. She also has a thesis that is marvelously woven in regarding slavery and its lasting imprints on the African American family, specifically with regard to corporal punishment. One needn't look past the jacket cover to see that the author obviously overcame adversity that is difficult to comprehend, however well written in That Mean Old Yesterday. Scars may fade but impressions don't. Obviously a talented writer and a very bright young woman, I am hopeful this is just the beginning. But it is her choice, quite obviously, about sharing such thoughts and emotions through her writing. I would very much like to see her expand on her ideas on slavery and its impact on African American culture. If nothing else, her poetry is wonderfully raw and emotional. So is That Mean Old Yesterday. A great book that should be getting more acclaim then it has thus far.

Good luck was with me; I met Stacey Patton on a train. She had a copy of MEAN OLD with her, gave it to me, and because I quickly read the first two pages, I had quickly to read the rest. Patton's writing is supercharged--cinematic, crafted, purposeful--and her story is the story of a survivor who transcends, who goes on, in search of understanding. In search of family. Within this often disturbing story there is hope. It is the hope that sings most loudly.

A memoir for the survival of our youth today. The author's words invite us to a dark side of her past, yet it translates a message that tells the reader that no situation or problem can be a scapegoat to cause their purpose or dreams to die. Anything or anyone, negative, can be won. Just a belief in self and perseverance to rise above it all will sustain and will pay off. We all have a desire for something good and we all have roadblocks on achieving them. Though a past that could have steered her wrong, Ms. Patton, proved that there is a life out there for each of us as long as we're determined to have it for ourselves and not others.