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Book Reviewed by:A woman learns the incredible story of a real-life American Kingdom—and her family's ties to it—in this enthralling novel from the New York Times bestselling, NAACP Image Award-winning author of Take My Hand.
Nikki hasn't seen her grandmother in years. So when the elder calls out of the blue with an urgent request for Nikki to visit her in the hills of western North Carolina, Nikki hesitates only for a moment. After years of silence in her family, due to a mysterious estrangement between her mother and grandmother, she's determined to learn the truth while she still can.
But instead of answers about the recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki an incredible story of a kingdom on this very mountain, and of her great-great-great grandmother, Luella, who would become its queen.
It sounds like the makings of a fairy tale—royalty among a community of freed people. But the more Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, and the lives of those who dwelled in the ruins she discovers in the woods, the more she realizes how much of her identity and her family's secrets are wrapped up in these hills. Because this land is their legacy, and it will be up to her to protect it before it, like so much else, is stolen away.
Inspired by true events, Happy Land is a transporting multi-generational novel about the stories that shape us and the dazzling courage it takes to dream.
Hidden history is fascinating to me. It's all those untold and under-told stories I've discovered in historical fiction. Happy Land is a perfect example. The author presents the facts of the existence of the Kingdom of Happy Land interwoven in a fictional family history, thus animating what may otherwise have been a mere footnote in post Civil War history (Donna D). Happy Land provides stunning insight into a real group of freedpeople who established their own community. The characters' connection and linkage to the land was beautifully told and so impactful (Emily B). It is amazing how little we know of the history of certain people and places. I never knew there was a "Kingdom of Happy Land" up in the North Carolina mountains with an honest to goodness King and Queen (Debra F)...continued
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(Reviewed by First Impressions Reviewers).
Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, which follows a group of formerly enslaved people who build a self-sustaining community on a mountainous plot of land in the Carolinas during the Reconstruction era, is based on a real-life historical place known as the Kingdom of the Happy Land. Perkins-Valdez stumbled upon the kingdom's history online while exploring a newfound interest in North Carolina banjo music. She was soon drawn into the story of this group of freed Black people who lived communally in a society based on African traditions, ruled by a king and queen: "It sounded like something made-up. A fairytale. But it was real, a feat of imagination and economic empowerment that few people have documented in our nation's history."
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Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake
What a story! Happy Land is an exhilarating tale of perseverance, identity, and love that echoes across generations. This story of formerly enslaved families in the Blue Ridge Mountains who built a community against all odds will stay with me for a long time.
