A Book That Has Deeply Impacted Me and Why by Ayana

A Book That Has Deeply Impacted Me and Why by Ayana - October 2023 Scholarship Essay

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson is a book about a young girl named Claudia who is trying to uncover the reasoning behind the disappearance of her best friend, Monday. The story begins the day before Claudia and Monday’s first day of 8th grade. Claudia had just returned home after being away all summer and was concerned because she hadn’t heard anything from Monday since she left, even though they agreed to keep in touch. The next day, Monday doesn’t return to school. Claudia is frustrated because nobody seems to notice the disappearance of Monday. She tries to go to the police, but they refuse to hear anything she has to say. She begins investigating the disappearance of her friend. As she gets deeper into the investigation, she learns the truth that Monday has been dead for two years. The death of her best friend was so traumatic that it caused Claudia to develop extreme posttraumatic stress disorder, and dissociative amnesia, which caused her to forget the events of Monday’s death.
I read this book during the beginning of my freshman year of highschool. It was September 2020, directly after a summer where black people everywhere were protesting for their lives. This book resonated with me because the book illustrated perfectly how little care society has for young black girls. Though Monday had been dead for two years, even at the time of her death no one noticed her sudden disappearance or cared to investigate. As a young black girl, this book taught me that living in America is a fight to be seen. Not just for me but for black girls everywhere. Even into adulthood, black women have the highest rate of death during childbirth. Black girls are taught from a young age to be strong, and survive. We’re sexualized, mistreated, and forgotten.
Immediately after reading this book, I called my best friend and told her that I loved her. I explained the book to her and how it made me feel. Though she and I are polar opposites, it was the first time we really saw ourselves in each other. We connected over our shared fear and comforted each other. It wasn’t just ourselves that we were scared for, it was our mothers, aunts, sisters, and grandmothers. Though this was a very heavy and difficult read, I am grateful that I read it. This book taught me that throughout the tribulations, black girls and women have each other. We have the support from our sisters, the companionship of our friends, and the love from our mothers. The sisterhood that tethers us together is stronger than any adversity.