I’m deeply grateful to everyone who has purchased, read, and taken the time to review one of my books. All profits from my books go to help get dogs like Jace, Gabe, Dobie, Oliver, Abigail, Thatcher, Bean, Bianca, Premanti, Carlos, Abriella, Stacey, Marco, Clyde, Parker, Tyler, Nitro, Aisha, Paxton, Alannah, Bacchus, Newton, Blitz, Albert, Ally, Wyatt, Aldo, Trapper, Bliss, Carla, Raider & Brownie, (see photos below) out of kill shelters. So far in 2017 we’ve helped free 877 dogs. In 2016, 250 dogs were freed. In 2015, 148 dogs were freed.
AND please for everyone who’s purchased a book could I humbly ask you to write a review when you’ve completed the read. Amazon promotes and ranks books according to number of reviews in addition to sales. Every voice helps spread the word and that is an energy that can help a dog.
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I’ve read Paulette Mahurin’s previous book, and like that one, this one is very well written. Having read a lot of indie books that have terrible grammar/spelling/pacing/what have you, it makes me very appreciative when authors like Mahurin take the time and patience to make a quality read like this one.
The only thing that makes this one hard to read for me is the content itself, if only because it takes an unflinching look at slavery from the point of view of a man looking back on his childhood. Usually, in books like this, we read about the heroes, the ones who set up the Underground Railroad, who rallied against their oppresses. But in this story, we’re reading about someone who has to hope for those things to happen. Now, normally, this would be a death knell for any book because who wants to read about a passive protagonist? But I found it made the book more engaging and tense. You know freedom is coming for Oscar, but like him you have to wait, and that means putting up with people so vile, I really just wanted to reach into the book to strangle them. It made the more emotional scenes have a really big impact, and I couldn’t help but feel for Oscar and his family. (Bonus: I can tell this book was also very well researched and the information presented to me did not make it feel like I was reading a history book or was told through exposition. That’s a really hard thing to pull off, so bravo to Mahurin for nailing this.)
It also helps that this book has a great narrator. He gets angry and hopeful, sad and happy. He helps guide us through the tougher parts of his journey. I also deeply loved his relationship with his mother and I was pulled in every moment they spent together. I did tear up a couple of times, and that’s really hard to pull out from someone like me who has a cold, black heart. I think what also makes it very effective is that I never felt like the author was FORCING me to feel bad for these people. She didn’t FORCE me to buy into the relationships Oscar has. Also the writing is very lovely at times, and very heartbreaking.
So why doesn’t this get a full 5 stars from me? Well, I’m a very picky person. While the story moved at a great pace, sometimes I felt like things went a little too fast and sometimes the narrator told me things rather than showed me. I can understand that sometimes you fall into that pit because the story has to move, but I felt like it could have slowed down just a little bit to show me Oscar’s relationship with his friend Sammy. I definitely also wanted more time with his father, a character I really enjoyed and was sad to see had little page time. I also felt like a lot of the themes here have been repeated in other books about the horrors of slavery. That doesn’t mean to say I still don’t find it effective and timely, I do, but I kind of wanted something a little more than “slavery is bad,” “hold on to hope,” etc. I’m really glad I got to read it from a different perspective, but I wish more was done with it. These things didn’t take away my enjoyment of the story, and depending on the kind of reader you are, you might not even notice/care about these things.
That being said, this is really one of the best indie books I’ve read in quite some time and it gives me renewed hope for the indie book industry. This is definitely a story worth reading, and at its price picking it up is a no-brainer. That is, unless you are easily triggered/squeamish because like I said, Mahurin doesn’t shy away from the more brutal aspects of the time period. I’m definitely looking forward to Mahurin’s next release and I hope that it will be sooner rather than later. And if you like this one, then you should read the others because they are just as good.
Four previous books by Paulette Mahurin I read and reviewed before I was notified by the author on the upcoming release of The Day I Saw The Hummingbird. The hummingbird turns out to be the harbinger of bad news to Oscar, born from two slaves on a sugarcane plantation in Lousiana on the eve of the Civil War. Mr. Prescott, the plantation owner, shot Oscar’s father to death and raped his mother several times. His cruelty towards little Oscar is somewhat limited by the help Oscar’s mother provided Prescott’s wife, With other slaves a plan to escape the plantation is worked out. A small bundle of slaves, among which the ten-year-old Oscar succeeded in escaping but with heavy losses along the Underground Railroad network towards states that are friendlier towards black people.
Added to the narrative are Oscar’s struggles with injustice and hate, and the power of language. Oscar was lucky to learn reading and writing at a young age and was helped to improve these skills in New York City where he arrived after an adventurous journey. Although the latter part of the story is told in a more summarized, condensed way compared to the years of slavery and the first part of the escape and stay in a safe house. The novel is a fine work of writing with a touch of limit linguistic capabilities of (former) slaves, and the point of view of a young boy haunted by man-made demons.
by Paulette Mahurin (Goodreads Author)
Anyone who has read my reviews over the years will know I am a big fan of Historical Fiction. I have a few indie authors whose works I treasure and who I absolutely love reading. One of these authors is Paulette Mahurin. She has the ability to move you to tears, whilst still managing to make you chuckle at some odd coincidence of her character’s . When I realised she had a new book out, well, I absolutely knew I had to read it. The Day I Saw the Hummingbird is something totally different from what I had read of Mahurin’s before and yet it still had that indefinable quality of her writing that captures the imagination and draws the reader into her world.
The Day I Saw the Hummingbird follows the adventures and life of Oscar, a young, black, slave in the heartlands of Louisiana around the time of the Civil War. Oscar and his mother dream of freedom and a life of dignity and learning, but when Oscar’s mother is brutally beaten at the hands of a drunken and violent overseer, it is time for the then nine-year-old Oscar to leave and seek the famous “underground railway” to the North and to freedom. Mahurin captures beautifully the times and the attitudes of the South in those days. Her descriptions of the trials and tribulations faced by the young man and the angst and pain he suffers, internally, at the treatment of his people, just because their skin is a different colour, is both moving and heartfelt. One couldn’t help but be drawn into Oscar’s world and feel the horrors faced by just a little boy and the courage required to survive on that long and arduous journey.
The book is written from the perspective of an elderly Oscar, in 1910, looking back at those times and reflecting, sadly, that in many ways, certainly in the South, little had changed since he’d made the long journey. One could even extrapolate and say in 2017, some things still haven’t changed in the South of the United States. I know there has been some controversy in recent times about only “African Americans” can tell the “African American Story”. Whilst I can respect some of the sentiment behind those thoughts, I am glad that Mahurin and others do not subscribe to this theory. As writers we must push the boundaries of our cultural and socio-economic experiences and embrace the pain and suffering of all humanity and point out injustice where we see it. It is what we do! And Mahurin does it superbly. Pain, suffering, injustice, love, friendship and all of the other myriad of human emotions do not belong to and are not confined or identifiable to a particular culture, but are shared across all of humanity and are what binds us together and makes us one race – the Human Race.
I applaud Mahurin for having the courage to write this wonderful story and as always I finish one of her books satisfied and full of thought and follow-up questions. A writer who can do this for a reader is to be celebrated and I place Paulette Mahurin right up there among the very best indie authors (or indeed any authors) out there. There was never any question of my rating for this book – 5+ superb stars all the way.
Maureen‘s review
Oliver’s been rescued
Oliver exiting the shelter
Oliver’s freedom photo
Abigail has been rescued
Abigail’s freedom photo
Abigail’s freedom ride
Thatcher has been rescued
Thatcher’s freedom photo
Bean has been rescued
Bean’s freedom photo
Bianca has been rescued
Bianca’s freedom photo
Primanti has been rescued
Primanti’s freedom photo
Carlos has been rescued
Carlos’ freedom ride
Carlos’ freedom photo
Abriella has been rescued
Abriella’s freedom photo
Abriella’s freedom ride
Stacey has been rescued
Stacey’s freedom photo
Marco has been rescued
Marco’s freedom video on the right. At the vet getting taken good care of.
Clyde has been rescued
Clyde’s freedom photo
Parker has been rescued
Parker’s freedom photo
Tyler has been rescued
Tyler’s freedom photo
Nitro has been rescued
Nitro’s freedom photo
Aisha’s been rescued
Aisha’s freedom photo
Paxton has been rescued
Paxton’s freedom photo
Alannah has been rescued
Alannah’s freedom photo
Bacchus has been rescued
Bacchus’ freedom photo
Newton has been rescued
Newton’s freedom photo
Blitz has been rescued
Blitz’s freedom photo
Albert has been rescued
Albert’s freedom photo
Ally (named by rescue) has been rescued
Ally’s freedom photo
Wyatt has been rescued
Wyatt’s freedom ride
Wyatt’s freedom photo
Wyatt bonding with new mom
Aldo has been rescued
Aldo’s freedom photo
Trapper has been rescued
Trapper’s freedom photo
Bliss has been rescued
Bliss’ freedom photo car ride
Carla has been rescued
Carla’s freedom photo
Raider has been rescued
Raider’s freedom photo
Brownie (named by rescue) has been rescued
Brownie’s freedom photo
Brownie settling into new home sweet home
Brownie’s thank you for saving my life
The people who organise their freedom and the people who take them into their homes are rewarded many times over by the love these dogs have to share.
❤️