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| Where the Children Take Us : How One Family Achieved the Unimaginable |
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"Living in Brixton and awaiting the return of her husband and young son from Nigeria, Obiajulu Ejiofor received shattering news. There had been a fatal car crash, and one of them was dead. In Where the Children Take Us, Obiajulu's daughter, Zain Asher, tells the story of her family and her mother's deeply personal fight to protect her children from the daily pressures of poverty, crime, and racism in 1980s and '90s South London as a widowed emigrant. Young Arinze and Obiajulu meet as teens in war-stricken Nigeria. Together, they emigrate to London in the 1960s to escape civil war and make a better life for themselves and their family. While seeking to achieve as much as they could, Obiajulu and Arinze experience prejudice and racism that overshadows their dreams and makes it difficult for them to make connections in a white Western society. When grief threatens to engulf her fractured family, the academic futures of her mourning children are put in jeopardy, but Obiajulu, suddenly a single mother in a foreign land, refuses to accept defeat. She buys the Western literary classics and instills a nightly book club, testing her children on their literacy nightly and challenging their deeper understanding. When they gravitate toward distractions, she eliminates the television and substitutes the phone for a residential pay phone, instead running theatre lines with her son and finishing homework into the early morning with Zain. Drawing on Nigerian parenting strategies encompassing adaptability, language, and foresight, Obiajulu enables her children to succeed under any and all conditions-a drive firmly instilled in her sons and daughters, who grow up to become an international journalist, an Oscar-nominated actor - Asher's older brother Chiwetel Ejiofor - amedical doctor, and a thriving entrepreneur. The story of a woman who survived genocide, famine, poverty, and crushing grief to rise from war torn Africa to the streets of Brixton and eventually the drawing rooms of Buckingham Palace, Where the Children Take Us is an unforgettable portrait of strength, tenacity, love, and perseverance embodied in one towering woman"-
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When CNN anchor Asher was five, a terrible tragedy befell her family. During a road trip in Nigeria, Asher's father and brother (actor Chiwetel Ejiofor) were involved in a car accident that left her father dead and her brother badly injured. Asher's mother, Obiajulu, was suddenly a single parent, raising four children in a dangerous neighborhood in south London. A survivor of the Nigerian Civil War, Obiajulu was no stranger to displacement and uncertainty, and she dedicated all of her considerable energy to ensuring that her children would excel despite the blow their family had been dealt. Asher writes of her mother's role in her professional success, and she tells her mother's story alongside her own, from the courtship with Asher's father in war-torn Nigeria, to the Brixton pharmacy where she fought to make ends meet for her four children, to an invitation from Queen Elizabeth to a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. At its heart, Where the Children Take Us is a love letter to the author's mother, in all her strength and determination. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
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When CNN anchor Asher was five, a terrible tragedy befell her family. During a road trip in Nigeria, Asher's father and brother (actor Chiwetel Ejiofor) were involved in a car accident that left her father dead and her brother badly injured. Asher's mother, Obiajulu, was suddenly a single parent, raising four children in a dangerous neighborhood in south London. A survivor of the Nigerian Civil War, Obiajulu was no stranger to displacement and uncertainty, and she dedicated all of her considerable energy to ensuring that her children would excel despite the blow their family had been dealt. Asher writes of her mother's role in her professional success, and she tells her mother's story alongside her own, from the courtship with Asher's father in war-torn Nigeria, to the Brixton pharmacy where she fought to make ends meet for her four children, to an invitation from Queen Elizabeth to a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. At its heart, Where the Children Take Us is a love letter to the author's mother, in all her strength and determination. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
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Homage to an indomitable woman and her remarkable journey. CNN anchor Asher makes her book debut with a vibrant memoir of her "tough-love" immigrant family, headed by her resolute mother-"breadwinner, nurturer, disciplinarian, cook, cleaner"-who instilled in her children a "succeed-at-all-costs" mentality. Obiajulu Ejiofor and her husband, Arinze, moved from Nigeria to London in the 1970s, having survived a brutal civil war and a two-year famine. While Arinze pursued a medical degree, Obiajulu enrolled in the pharmacy program at the University of London. When she graduated, the couple obtained a loan to open their own pharmacy, a business that supported them and their children. In 1988, however, tragedy struck: While Arinze and their 11-year old son, Chiwetel, were visiting Nigeria, they were involved in a horrific automobile accident; Arinze was killed and Chiwetel, severely injured. As an immigrant in South London, with three children and pregnant with a fourth, Obiajulu faced a daunting future. But despite her grief, she made an unwavering commitment to raise her children to become "ambitious, talented, and disciplined." Chiwetel is an Oscar-nominated actor; the author's sister is a physician; another brother is a successful businessman. For Obiajulu, education was paramount. To make sure her children were well prepared for their assignments, Obiajulu devoted every evening to study sessions, and she gave the children reading lists and quizzed them on their comprehension. When 9-year-old Asher seemed to be floundering, her mother sent her back to Nigeria for two years, where children showed adults "unquestioned obedience." She hung photos of famous Nigerians around the house to serve as role models. When the children were distracted by TV, she sliced the cable. To keep them from wasting time on phone calls with friends, she installed a pay phone. Refusing to be undermined by poverty and racism, Obiajulu, writes the author, "fought with every fiber of her being for her family." Asher delivers a well-written chronicle of absolute determination and familial devotion. A wholly inspiring portrait of an extraordinary immigrant family. Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
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