Barbara Brandon-Croft

Individual cartoons from this collection have been reprinted, but the series appeared in only a few weekly magazines, so this book was the first indication I had that the characters were part of a story. Ten regular characters, counting a mostly preverbal baby, and two extras appear in this book. Only their faces and hands are drawn, keeping the focus on the facial expressions, which the author captures remarkably well. The women are different in personalities and apparent ages; often they disagree and sometimes they quarrel, but their enduring friendship is downright inspirational.

One way this book could have been better would have been for it to include someone whose politics were right of center. The cartoonist may have grown up in Washington, D.C., where advocates of tighter government budgets tend to be quiet, but still, this book is unbalanced and thus fails to represent Black women like Stacey Dash. It does a splendid job of representing Maxine Waters' fans.… (meer)