the immortal life of henrietta lacks book review essay

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THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

by Rebecca Skloot ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 2010

Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...

A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.

In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.

Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010

ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HEALTH & FITNESS | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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edited by Rebecca Skloot and Floyd Skloot

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

From mean streets to wall street.

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Contingency has been on my mind quite often these days. What would life look like today if the ancestors of the first land-dwelling vertebrates had two legs instead of four? How would non-avian dinosaurs continue to have evolved if they had not been wiped out 65 million years ago? What if, like many other prehistoric apes, our own ancestors fell into extinction during the Pliocene? Any one of these events would have changed the history of life on earth, and even though there are not answers to these questions they still remind me of how historical quirks can have major effects.

Though it has nothing at all to do with fossils or evolution, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is also a tale of contingency. In February of 1951 doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital removed cancerous cells from the cervix of a 30 year old African American woman who had come in complaining of a painful “knot” inside of her. She had no idea that the sample of her cells had been taken, but this small event of one woman’s life would end up changing the world in ways that no one expected.

This woman was Henrietta Lacks , and even though she died from the cancer in October of 1951 the descendants of the cells taken from her over a half century ago are still thriving in laboratories around the world. Because of a biological quirk scientists were able to turn her cells into the first “immortal” cell line, called HeLa, the study of which has greatly increased our knowledge of ourselves and led to the effective treatment of numerous diseases. Her cells have affected the lives of people all over the world, and this makes it all the more shameful that, until now, almost no one knew anything about her.

The true strength of Skloot’s book is that it is not a simple celebration of science. Innumerable articles and several books have been written about the HeLa cell line before, but they largely ignored Henrietta and her family. The story of the poor black woman who had her cells taken from her without her knowledge or consent just did not register with most writers (especially since it was decades before anyone knew her real name), and the attitudes of journalists and scientists made Henrietta’s family increasingly bitter about the entire affair. While medical companies made millions off of Henrietta’s cells they remained poor and could barely afford health insurance even in the best of times. And as famous as Henrietta’s cells were her family knew almost nothing about what happened to her or what was taken from her. While Skloot ably covers the science of HeLa, the real story is the personal drama of Henrietta and her family, in which Skloot comes to play a substantial part.

As I read through this story of science, race relations, medicine, and poverty I could not help but wonder how things would have been if small events had turned out differently. What if doctors and scientists had informed the Lacks family about HeLa earlier, and what would have happened if the scientists that finally did were not so inept at communicating what had happened to Henrietta? What if Skloot had never followed her deep desire to know who Henrietta was, or what if the Lacks family, frustrated that another journalist was coming around asking questions, decided to ignore Skloot’s persistent phone calls? Would Henrietta’s life have remained a mystery even to her own family?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a triumph of science writing (it is truly one of the best nonfiction books I have ever read), and I was deeply affected by it on a personal level. The story reaffirmed that small events can have major repercussions, and as sad and angry as the tale of the Lacks family made me by the end of the book I was glad that Skloot had worked so hard to reach them. Through something as simple as wanting to learn more about Henrietta’s life Skloot and the Lacks family were able to create a fitting tribute to Henrietta and her legacy. For the first time, the most important woman in modern medicine is having her story told, and I truly hope that it gets the attention it deserves.

You can contribute to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation here .

[Be sure to check out the reviews of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks at the New York Times and Not Exactly Rocket Science , as well.]

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Essay

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Henrietta Lacks was a key component behind the groundbreaking discoveries that changed the history of science and medicine forever. Henrietta and the Lacks family tree dates back through generations of plantation workers and slavery. With the time of her story being post Civil War era, I believe it should be highly considered that her consent to medical practice was taken advantage of. Henrietta suffered from cervical cancer. Presently, her cancerous cells turned out to become the first immortal cell line. Due to the scientific practices performed on Henrietta, we now have an name for this cell line, HeLa.

Taking into consideration of Henrietta Lack’s race, her experience at Johns Hopkins hospital was the beginning of the reality behind deeply rooted racial practices. Basically, the two sides that differentiate medical practices are normative ethics and mortality. Everything boils down to these two sides, but Henrietta’s cells were taken without consent. At the time, segregation had just been integrated so there are still questions to be raised at the morality of these medicinal practices. Keeping that in mind, this potentially skewed the decisions made by doctors such as George Gey, who was the first to study Henrietta’s cells in an effort to breed human cells that would regenerate forever. However, Gey obtained her cells from her previous doctors without her consent. This is just merely one example as to why Henrietta’s cells were taken without her knowledge. A Doctor, who works at Johns Hopkins, is looking to discover a new breakthrough in the medical field but abuses Henrietta’s form of consent. The two sides I referred to earlier, pertains to this example very strongly. Although we know doctors as the people whose sole purpose to help whoever comes into their office, it is more complex. The situation of taking Henrietta’s cells seems morally ambiguous due to the fact that doctors are under an oath that states whatever a doctor is doing, it must be good for the patient. However, there is a loophole with this oath as the meaning behind “doctors know best” begins to take on a more metaphorical meaning. Ironically enough, doctors following this code may also feel that their patients should be withheld from certain information as it may not be beneficial. From a scientific standpoint, without Doctors such as Dr. TeLinde and Dr. Gey, taking cells without consent actually benefited our medical field in many ways that could have potentially never happened. But, this method does not meet a moral conduct whatsoever. Even if the actions that took place were only out of best interest for their patients, it still measures up as an act of exploitation to those who were of poverty status or even of African descent.

Due to the lack of care for African American patients at the time, if Henrietta were to be a wealthy white woman there is no doubt that she would have been treated differently. Obtaining cells for these doctors was done with more of an “under the table” style. They knew that the only way they were going to be able to continue their research in breeding the first line of immortal cells was going to have to be done by obtaining all of the cells that they needed; What better way to do that then by keeping these certain patients out of the loop and look like it was just a huge breakthrough in science. If Henrietta were a wealthy woman, there would be a huge risk at taking her cells without consent as her higher social status could potentially expose the face of science and medicine.

Next, the existence of the HeLa cells were extremely frightening for the Lacks family. Not only were Henrietta’s cells taken without any form of consent but nobody in their family even knew what had taken place until the 1970’s. The only reason it surfaced to the family was due to the fact that doctors wanted to further their research on the rest of her family and their cells. Exploiting the Lacks family yet again, they continue to perform research on Henrietta’s children without their consent and they practically didn’t even understand what they were even studying within their bodies. With the Lacks family coming from generations of plantation and slave workers it was obvious that they lacked the proper knowledge behind the most basic of the whole scheme these doctors were even performing such as what a cell is. To anyone who does not understand what they are being used in science for, especially in Henrietta’s children’s situation, the whole appearance of everything alone would more than likely bring some form of anxiety and confusion.

It is hard to say how Henrietta’s children would have turned out if she had not died so young. With the state of the United States post Civil War, I think that anything could have happened and they would have turned out the same way. That period of time was very rough on African American culture especially in the fashion that Henrietta’s case was studied. I am sure that their mother’s care would have made a different impact on their lives, but with how African Americans were already being treated who is to say that it is Henrietta’s fault that her children turned out the way they did.

I believe the way that the way researchers obtained Henrietta’s cells was not only morally wrong, but dangerous as well. The main reason scientists even wanted to have her cells was for their own profit. In any circumstance, this is morally incorrect, but it also crosses the boundaries of trust and honesty between physicians and their patients. One may argue that the methods utilized in collecting cells without consent was important because without them we would not be where we are today in the science and medical field. However, I do understand that form reasoning, but it lacks basic human ethics and rights. These physicians would actually take pieces of human biology from their patients without telling them what they are doing and/or misconstruing the information as well. After all of the stress they have gone through, the Lacks family rightfully deserves to be financially compensated. For years the research done to Henrietta’s cells were kept from her family, it was not until Doctors wanted to do research on her children that the family had only first heard about it. Without Henrietta’s cells, science and medicine would not be the same. Doctors took pieces of Henrietta’s biology without anyone knowing, including her family. With everything they have since discovered thanks to Henrietta and her children, you would think that financially compensating them would be the least they could do for the family after everything they were put through.

Furthermore, I was surprised when reading what Skloot included in the Afterword regarding the surrounding issues of the collection of human tissue samples. I found Skloot’s take on the whole topic interesting and honestly, quite modest. “Like it or not, we live in a market-driven society, and science is part of that market” (Skloot, 2011). Skloot makes this point in an effort for people to understand that although there are moral ethics we would hope all would abide by, we live in a society that still has money to make. It was interesting for Skloot to note that human tissues really do not hold much financial value. A feeling just quite isn’t enough to justify why humans should be entitled to financial compensation for our bodies, however, if we take a stand back from the market side of our society, we would more than likely value our bodies more. For the reason being that very little of our biology has financial worth, the Lacks family has never filed for compensation for HeLa.

Finally, if I had discovered that my tissue has been removed without my knowledge, I would feel taken back in trusting my physician. Personally, I understand the motives behind benefitting the future of science and humanity, but I am uncomfortable with the idea of taking my own tissue without consent. Thanks to science, we are continuously thriving as a species, however, our basic human rights should not be abused amongst this process. It depends how valuable my cells would be for science in order to determine if I would be okay with giving them up so easily in the name of science. If I am completely healthy and there are no side effects to the research being done, I am all for helping benefit the future, but that needs to be communicated and consented with me before proceeding.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

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Published: Jan 30, 2024

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Table of contents

The commercialization of henrietta lacks' cells, racial disparities in healthcare, the lasting impact of henrietta lacks' story.

• National Institutes of Health - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/global-impact-hela-cells
• American Medical Association - https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity
• European Court of Human Rights - https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/FS_Bioethics_ENG.pdf

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Related Essays on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

In Rebecca Skloot's book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she delves into the story of Henrietta and her family to uncover the impact of her cells on the field of medicine. Skloot begins her narrative by recalling a [...]

The Henrietta Lacks case is a poignant example of the ethical complexities that arise at the intersection of medical research, patient rights, and the advancement of science. This essay delves into the ethical issues surrounding [...]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot sheds light on the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks and the ethical issues surrounding her immortal cells. This essay delves into the complex ethical considerations [...]

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Imagine if your mother died and her cells were stolen, as well as you and your siblings growing up in an abusive environment. That is the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. She was a black woman, who had cervical cancer [...]

Informed Consent is patient authorization which is given to a specialist for treatment with full knowledge of the potential dangers and advantages. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot addresses the treatment [...]

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Book Review: The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

March 24, 2011 /  James Corke  /  1 Comment  /  UNIYFPAD 2011

Many books have clever strap-lines, usually claiming their contents will either change your life or be the best thing you will read this year. Often this blurb is exactly that: a marketing tool designed to grab your attention and pull you in on an over-inflated promise.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has such a strap-line: “She died in 1951. What happened next changed the world.” Rather than throwaway hyperbole though, these tantalising words prove to be stunningly accurate in their claim.

Rebecca Skloot’s debut charts the history of human cell culture, through one of science’s most important but least remembered contributors.

Henrietta Lacks died on October 4 1951 from cervical cancer. A poor, black tobacco farmer, there was nothing immediately remarkable about her passing. However, the cancerous cells doctors removed without her knowledge changed that, leading to one of the most significant and profitable scientific discoveries of the 20 th century.

Henrietta’s cells were the first immortal human cells grown in a laboratory and went on to be used in research that helped develop treatments for leukaemia, herpes and Parkinson’s disease. They have travelled worldwide and are still used extensively by scientists today.

Like a good detective novel, the book sets out to understand more about the woman behind the cells and follows the author’s attempts to track down Henrietta’s family.

Skloot’s story-telling is divine, her descriptive prose transports you back in time to the tobacco fields of Clover, Virginia, and she shows a real understanding of both the human and science sides of the tale.

Little is held back when describing medical procedures and many of the scientific explanations are not for the squeamish: “The skin from Henrietta’s breasts to her pelvis was charred a deep black from the radiation.”

Similarly, she describes Henrietta being physically strapped to the bed to stop her falling to the floor during convulsions of pain in a way that is honest and without sensationalism. The science is explained clearly and concisely throughout; leaving you wishing Skloot was around during your time in the classroom.

While the graphic scenes make for uncomfortable reading, the most harrowing parts of the book are the reminders of how black people were treated in the all- too recent past.

In 1950’s America, most hospitals were only for whites and would refuse to treat black patients. Those that did, kept black and white patients segregated, with white-only water fountains and separate freezers in the morgue for black people.

A researcher at the Hopkins hospital where Henrietta was treated used blood samples of local, poor and predominately black children in 1969 without their consent. The reason? To test for “a genetic predisposition to criminal behaviour.”

Equally, the treatment of Henrietta’s daughter and others at the Crownsville Hospital for the Negro Insane was horrific. Patients were used for painful brain x-ray experiments where the side effects lasted for months.

Over in Tuskegee, black scientists were using cells from a black woman to successfully test the effectiveness of the first polio vaccine. Meanwhile, state officials at the same site were watching hundreds of African American men with syphilis “die slow, painful, preventable deaths, even after they realized penicillin could cure them.”

This sense of injustice runs strongly through the narrative. Pharmaceutical companies have made a phenomenal amount of money from selling Henrietta’s cells, yet her family remain poor and unable to afford their own healthcare.

Indeed, many of the scientists involved ended up winning Nobel Peace prizes while Henrietta’s family remained oblivious.

Skloot weaves the tale seamlessly from past to present, from her story to Henrietta’s and her family’s – all over the course of 80 years.

It clearly became more than just a book to the author and her determination to discover and share the truth of this extraordinary story is etched into each page.

The result is part science and part history lesson, documenting harrowing treatments and shocking racism, yet celebrating the tremendous legacy of one woman’s contribution to a crucial scientific breakthrough.

It is hard to compare The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to other books as I have not read anything quite like it. Skloot turns the writing of it into a personal journey, ending up as one of the key players in a story you have to remind yourself isn’t fiction.

More importantly, she successfully tells a truly remarkable tale; one that should be shared as widely as possible to gain the recognition it deserves.

This article forms part of our 2011 editorial campaign in support of the UN International Year for People of African Descent.

ISBN – 978033053344-7

Publication Date – December 23 2010

Publisher – Pan

Paperback; 384 pages

BUY THIS IN OUR BOOKSHOP!

Related Links

http://rebeccaskloot.com/

http://henriettalacksfoundation.org/

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One comment on “book review: the immortal life of henrietta lacks by rebecca skloot”.

Allowing some back story, considering Henrietta was born in 1951, that is 70 years, not 80 years.

Admit I’m hypersensitive to the issue as I was born a month before the amazing Ms. Lacks passed away.

Comments are closed.

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Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This book tells three intertwining stories and spans decades, centering on an immortal line of human cells, taken from an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks in the 1950’s. She was afflicted with an aggressive form of cervical cancer, and through deception, gave her consent for the doctor to take cell samples. Her cell sample was coded as HeLa, and her real identity was not known. This event starts a fascinating, disturbing tale of medical ethics gone awry, capitalism in medicine, investigative journalism, and the contrasting lives of Lacks descendants.

The discovery of Henrietta’s immortal cancer cells, laid the foundation for most of the scientific discoveries we have made, and created a multi-billion dollar industry where her cells were sold all over the world as an infinite supply of scientific testing material. At the same time companies and hospitals were selling the HeLa cells, the Lacks family were living in extreme poverty, with no medical care. Author Rebecca Skloot bounces back and forth between Henrietta’s final days, and the present day, as she attempts to gain the trust of the Lacks family, discover who HeLa was, and how medical ethics were not always a reality. For a non-fiction book about cellular biology, it is a riveting detective story that also exposes medicines sordid past, and makes the reader question whether advancement of medicine is worth it at any cost.

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Review: ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,’ Condensed

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By Neil Genzlinger

• April 20, 2017

One of the most acclaimed nonfiction books of 2010, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” began as an investigation of a medical miracle but became a gripping, poignant story about racism, shoddy scientific ethics and a sprawling family’s painful experiences with both.

If it sounds as if effectively truncating such an intricate, provocative book into a 93-minute movie would be nearly impossible, well, the film version that has its premiere Saturday night on HBO proves the point. This fascinating tale really wanted to be a six- or eight-episode mini-series.

The movie, also titled “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” was directed by George C. Wolfe, who had a starry cast at his disposal headed by Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne. It tells a rich and unsettling story that begins with the woman of the title (played in flashbacks by Renée Elise Goldsberry), who died of cancer in 1951 but not before unwittingly making an invaluable contribution to science: cancer cells that reproduced outside the body.

“In this jar, we have a sample of cancerous human tissue,” Dr. George Gey (Reed Birney) explains in a 1950s-style newsreel in the film’s early moments. “What makes this sample so unique is that this is the first cell line we have discovered in over 30 years of trying that can survive and reproduce indefinitely. With this, scientists will be able to perform experiments that they never could on a living human being.”

The cell line (called HeLa, from Lacks’s names) became the basis for a vast amount of medical research, but the movie isn’t about the resulting breakthroughs. It’s about a young author, Rebecca Skloot (Ms. Byrne), who goes in search of the woman behind the cell line and encounters a volatile family, assorted mysteries and all sorts of questions about scientific ethics .

Ms. Skloot of course wrote the book upon which the movie is based, but she is also a character in the story, a white woman intruding on a black family that at first is not inclined to share information about the matriarch or the rest of the clan. The core relationship in the film is the one between Rebecca and Deborah Lacks (Ms. Winfrey, also an executive producer here), one of Henrietta’s daughters, who gradually comes to trust Rebecca and helps her gain access to other family members.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca skloot.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Henrietta Lacks: Introduction

Henrietta lacks: plot summary, henrietta lacks: detailed summary & analysis, henrietta lacks: themes, henrietta lacks: quotes, henrietta lacks: characters, henrietta lacks: symbols, henrietta lacks: theme wheel, brief biography of rebecca skloot.

Historical Context of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Other books related to the immortal life of henrietta lacks.

• Full Title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• When Written: 2000-2010
• Where Written: Baltimore and Chicago
• When Published: 2010
• Literary Period: Contemporary non-fiction
• Genre: Non-fiction
• Setting: Baltimore and the surrounding area
• Climax: Deborah and her brother Zakariyya see pictures of their mother’s cells
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. Rebecca Skloot has donated some of the profits of her book to an organization called The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, specifically set up in order to provide financial assistance and support to the heirs of Henrietta Lacks, particularly those seeking out higher education.

Continued privacy breach. In 2013, researchers fully sequenced Henrietta’s genome and released it to the public, seemingly not knowing or not caring about the massive privacy breach this created for her descendants, whose genetic information was now exposed.

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In time for Banned Books Week, the National Council of Teachers in English (NCTE) and School Library Journal  have partnered again to provide professional reviews of banned curriculum staples. As a follow-up to April's Defending the Canon roundup , we highlight 18 acclaimed works by celebrated authors, including Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

Excerpts of each review are featured here, and the full reviews are linked below. Many of the NCTE reviews were adapted from the  NCTE Rationale Database .

Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale

Gr 10 Up –This award-winning novel is an account of Offred’s life in an oppressive society. It is set in the futuristic world of Gilead, where fertile women are a scarce resource due to infertility. The Commanders, high-ranking, wealthy public officials, have designed the Republic of Gilead to ensure they have access to fertile women, whom they have given the title of Handmaids. Offred is assigned to one of these Commanders and must figure out how to survive in the new world. Atwood writes about quintessential themes of gender, religion, society, identity, and so much more that are ripe for discussion. VERDICT A cautionary dystopian tale published almost 40 years ago that still resonates with readers.– Kristyn Dorfman & NCTE Rationale Database

See full review.  

LEWIS CARROLL

ILLUS. BY JOHN TENNIEL

Through the Looking-Glass

Penguin Classics

Gr 3 Up –This sequel to Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland takes place six years later, with the beloved Alice stepping through a mirror into a surreal realm where she meets peculiar characters, explores curious landscapes, and attempts to make sense of the nonsensical events around her. This novel is like that poem, a construction of the imagination that delights young readers, who see in its searching but confident protagonist a template for who they may become—or already are. Many current YA and graphic novels would pair well with this classic as mentor texts. VERDICT The kind and considerate Alice trusts her own judgment even as a fantastic dream turns her world upside down, endearing her as a heroine to children everywhere for over 150 years. A must for all collections.– Georgia Christgau & Darius Phelps

See full review.

LOIS DUNCAN

Killing Mr. Griffin

Little, Brown

Gr 8 Up –Mr. Griffin is a disliked high school English teacher. Mark persuades his classmates Jeff, David, Betsy, and Sue to kidnap their teacher to scare him into giving them high grades for inferior work. The students kidnap Mr. Griffin, tie him up, blindfold him, and drive him to the secluded mountains to leave him there. Their plan soon backfires when Mr. Griffin dies of a heart attack. The teens find themselves in a chain of events that lead them from one violent act to another. Although written in the late 1970s, Duncan’s classic will keep readers on the edge of their seats and delivers plot twist after plot twist. With multiple points of view, this suspense novel gives teens a full scope of each character’s mental state and motivation. VERDICT A great YA classic to share with Karen M. McManus fans.– Heather Lassley & NCTE Rationale Database

HERMANN HESSE

TR. FROM GERMAN BY JOACHIM NEUGROSCHEL ILLUS. BY JESSICA HISCHE

Gr 10 Up –This work has been in continuous publication for over a century because of its universally recognized themes of spirituality, personal growth, and self-exploration. Leaving the upper caste Indian society in which he was raised, Siddartha and his friend Govinda are in pursuit of a deeper understanding of life. The text follows Siddartha in his life-long spiritual journey and through the trials, teachings, and people that lead him to peace and wisdom. Set in India and focused on the religious beliefs and teachings of Buddhism, this is a strong novel for multicultural literature studies and for discussions of students’ own personal growth. While the novel is relatively short, and Hesse’s language simple and colorful, often with the flavor of legend or myth, some of the key concepts will appeal to more mature readers. VERDICT A compelling adventure story and an insightful, practical exploration of ancient Indian philosophy, recommended for older teens.– Bob Hassett & NCTE Rationale Database

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Gr 9 Up –Con man Randall P. McMurphy, convicted of drunkenness, assault, and battery, pulls a fast one when he requests a transfer to the men’s ward of a mental hospital to get out of the hard labor of a work farm. A ward of scared men is in thrall to the powerful, unflappable Nurse Ratched. McMurphy, charismatic and selfish, challenges her authority when a desire to make the men laugh turns him into a person who cares about others. The novel raises crucial questions about power and control, about how groups establish and maintain the kind of order that they deem necessary to their survival. While it includes disturbing and mature themes and experiences, and has clearly outdated stereotypes embedded within, it can be profitably taught to high school students to open stimulating and illuminating classroom discussions. VERDICT Through humor and his brand of heroism, Kesey reveals the mistreatment and ostracism of the mentally ill who society would have preferred to remain forgotten. A must for all collections.– Georgia Christgau & NCTE Rationale Database

GEORGE ORWELL

Animal Farm

Gr 8 Up –Farm animals rebel against their slothful master and establish their own system of farm government. The rebellion begins in the vision of the animals’ elder statesman, the old boar Major. At a meeting attended by multiple farm animals, Major relates his dream of the day when the animals will manage their own affairs and enjoy the fruit of their labor rather than remaining slaves of the humans. After Major’s death the animals throw their master off the farm and set up their own government. Almost immediately, however, the government becomes corrupt. The book has been used to illustrate literary forms, such as the beast fable, allegory, and parable. The animal characters talk and act like human beings, and the story has an obvious larger significance, specifically the Russian revolution of 1917. What begins as good intentions can quickly turn sour when power is left unchecked. Almost 100 years after its publication, the allegory of this work remains a powerful study on how a dictator rises to power. VERDICT An undereducated working class lured by propaganda, manipulation of power, and political corruption are themes that remain as important now as when this was published. A necessary addition to YA collections.– Ashley Leffel & NCTE Rationale Database

JOHN STEINBECK

The Grapes of Wrath

Gr 8 Up –Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for this saga of the Joad family—his first full-length novel—based on the historic migration of poor farmers from the Midwest to the West Coast during the Depression. With their meager savings, the Joads, forced off their land and ancestral home in Oklahoma by drought, crop failure, and debt, buy a worn-out old truck for the long journey that son Al, 16, proudly takes responsibility for as lead driver and mechanic. Big brother Tom channels his fiery energy into helping the family get to California, even though he breaks parole to do it. This is just one of the tensions typical of Steinbeck’s deeply emotional and gripping classic, a tale readers won’t soon forget. The work provides material for the study of theme, characterization, the use of symbolism, and allegory. These topics should stimulate student response to a variety of issues, among them the plight of the downtrodden, man’s inhumanity to man, and the strength of the human spirit. VERDICT  Students will enjoy this harsh but beautiful story of a family in crisis bound together by their belief in their right to a better life.– Georgia Christgau & NCTE Rationale Database

ALICE WALKER

The Color Purple

Gr 10 Up –A timeless classic, this is a cultural mainstay with perennial importance, relevance, and splendor. Penned by the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this work of art takes place in rural Georgia and centers the various lives and experiences of Black women in the 1930s. Celie, the 14-year-old protagonist and narrator, survives ongoing emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather, Alphonso. Her stepfather arranges her marriage to Mister. He and his children all treat Celie badly, attempting to break her spirit and discard her humanity. Hope and resilience become the protagonist’s armor to take up space with her intersecting identities, causing her to also find strength from friendships with other strong Black women characters, Shug Avery and Sofia. There are several explicit descriptions of systematic rapes, masturbation, and beatings. VERDICT  This is a bold, brave, and rich literary account that humanizes the experiences of Black women. Purchase for all collections.– Heather Lassley & Raven L. Jones

REBECCA SKLOOT

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Gr 9 Up –The author’s high school biology teacher mentioned the name Henrietta Lacks in a class in the 1990s, but when Skloot asked for more information, he said no one knew who she was. But her cells were famous: before she died in 1951, a doctor had put a slice of her tumor in a petri dish, and the cells, called “HeLa,” continued reproducing. They jumpstarted the field of cell biology and an industry that eventually sold her so-called immortal cells to researchers worldwide. From a young age Skloot wondered how—and why—the scientific community left Lacks behind. By developing a deep, rich relationship with Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, Skloot broke through the family’s deep distrust of the medical profession to tell Henrietta’s story dramatically and respectfully. VERDICT Like a mystery novel, this wonderful book finds the human drama behind the scientific breakthrough of the discovery of cells taken from a young Black woman dying of cervical cancer without her knowledge.– Georgia Christgau

SLJ Reviewers: Shelley M. Diaz, Kristyn Dorfman, Bob Hassett, Ashley Leffel, Heather Lassley 

NCTE Contributors: Raven L. Jones, Diana Liu, Darius Phelps

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack

Henrietta Lacks is one of those people who greatly impacted your life and you don’t even know her name. What’s even more fascinating about her story is that she didn’t even know how much good she would do in the world after she died. In 1951, after having five children, Lacks discovered that she had cervical cancer, from which she would pass away at a tragically young age of 31. Without the knowledge of Henrietta or her family, tissue from the tumor that killed her was taken from her body and essentially made immortal at Johns Hopkins. For decades, scientists there had been trying to grow a cell line on which the medical industry could experiment in ways that they couldn’t do with living people. Henrietta Lacks was the key that unlocked the door, leading to decades of medical advancements, including developments in the treatment of polio, Parkinsons, influenza, leukemia, and many more. With the cells named HeLa, most of the world had no idea that it was the biological property of a Virginia mother who changed the world.

George C. Wolfe ’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” premiering on HBO tomorrow night, tells Henrietta’s (Renee Elise Goldsberry) story. Sorta. It also tells the story of journalist Rebecca Skloot ( Rose Byrne ), the woman who spent a decade researching this strange story and wrote the bestselling book on which this film is based. Sorta. It also tells the story of Deborah Lacks ( Oprah Winfrey ), Henrietta’s daughter, who has become somewhat obsessed and damaged by the saga of her mother and how little she feels like she knows about a woman who has somehow become the property of the world. Any one of these stories could have worked on their own, but the awkward blending of all three doesn’t work. Rebecca becomes little more than an unnecessary sounding board for Deborah, who could have anchored the story on her own. And, worst of all, it feels like we get to know the woman writing this tale more than the person it’s about. At one point, someone says “This story is crazy enough for three books!” Which makes it both too much and not quite enough for one film.

The Lacks family saga is an amazing one. Not only did Henrietta grow up a young mother without much to her name, but her family tree developed fascinating subplots after her death. Deborah’s obsession with her mother makes her the natural leading lady of this story, but we also meet the aggressive Zakariyya ( Reg E. Cathey ), a man hardened by a criminal lifestyle into which he might not have fallen if he knew more about his mother. The entire Lacks family becomes bitter and angry over a system that essentially took part of a mother they never really got to know, without anyone’s permission. They became downright paranoid about it, convinced both that John Hopkins had made millions to which they were owed and even that they might have cloned Henrietta. Courtney B. Vance appears as a slimy attorney who tries to take advantage of the Lacks’ family drama.

If it sounds like a lot of movie for 91 minutes, you’re not wrong. There is a socially relevant subtext here about how easy it was for the medical industry to take advantage of minorities, and often for little reason at all, other than they could. Would Henrietta Lacks have given her cells for research? Probably, but no one even asked. And John Hopkins would continue to deceive the Lacks family. Wolfe’s movie seeks to humanize someone who became immortal. It takes someone who became huge in the world of science and shows us who she was, the life she led, and the family she left behind.

Then why isn’t this her story? We see flashbacks to Henrietta, but Wolfe and his team chose to make this the story of a daughter “finding” her mother instead, and it truly feels like we never really find Henrietta as viewers. It’s about a woman who never knew her mother, and so it feels like something that was given to the rest of the world was stolen from her. That’s powerful drama, but the storytelling approach here diffuses it. Nothing feels invested in long enough to register because the narrative is constantly jumping around, almost as if it’s scared there’s not enough story here to carry a film.

Thank God for great casting. Winfrey is typically fantastic, finding the emotional undercurrent of a child who just wants to hold on to what she can when it comes to her mother. Cathey and Vance are spectacular in small roles. Only Byrne seems adrift, but that’s a problem of direction and writing. Typically underrated, she is sometimes downright distracting here, giving an overdone performance designed to be the straight man to the oddity of Deborah. As great as it is that Rebecca helped bring this story into the light, her story is thin, and not only because it once again feels like we’re hearing the story of a minority family through the eyes of a white protagonist.

Henrietta Lacks was a mortal. She was a sister and mother who died way too young, and did more for the world after she died than she ever could have imagined. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” does its most good by bringing the full name back to HeLa. With such a unique, decades-long story, perhaps it’s only appropriate that it’s going to take more than one movie before we really get to know her.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

• L. Warren Young as Day Lacks
• Sylvia Grace Crim as Mary Kubicek
• Patrick R. Walker as Cousin Fred
• Renée Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks
• Ninja N. Devoe as Country Girl Mae
• Lisa Arrindell as Aunt Ethel
• Earl Poitier as Cousin Josh
• Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks
• Rose Byrne as Rebecca Skloot
• Jane Rumbaua as Mrs. Hsu
• Aaron Yanes
• Alexander Woo
• George C. Wolfe

Writer (adaptation)

• Peter Landesman

Writer (book)

• Rebecca Skloot

Cinematograprer

• Sofian El Fani

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TV Movie Review: 'The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks'

Eric Deggans

In the HBO movie, Oprah Winfrey stars as the daughter of Henrietta Lacks who, with help from a reporter, finds out that her mother's cells are being used as the basis for medical research.

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