"After thirty years of reporting, Kristal Brent Zook has turned inward to write a deeply personal, frank, and inspirational story about race and class."
Ada Calhoun, author of, Why We Can't Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis
"Kristal Brent Zook's coming-of-age memoir is a thought-provoking tale of triumph outdistancing pain, of never giving up on love and hope despite childhood traumas and a broken family. Kristal writes so beautifully and urgently. The Girl in the Yellow Poncho will absolutely absorb you."
Kevin Merida, coauthor of, Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs
"Brilliantly capturing the complexities of contemporary Black women's experiences, The Girl in the Yellow Poncho is the most riveting, compelling memoir I have read."
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College
"Kristal's story touched me deeply. It will touch everyone who has struggled with feeling the 'in-betweenness' that propels her riveting heroine's journey to define herself and create the family for which she yearned. The writing is as powerful as the message: love ultimately triumphs."
Gloria Feldt, author of, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take the Lead for (Everyone’s) Good
"Kristal Brent Zook's memoir is a wrenching, riveting and luminous coming-of-age story about what it means to grow up biracial. Her journey reads like a multigenerational tale woven by strong biracial and Black women-in this case, the daughters, mothers and grandmothers of Zook's family. With grace and generosity, Zook offers a universal testament to the power of forgiveness and healing-and the strength found through discovering one's authentic identity. At a time when we often feel lost, this memoir reveals what it means to be found."
Katrina vanden Heuvel, Publisher,, The Nation
"Kristal Brent Zook has written an honest, illuminating look at her life, loves and culture."
Nelson George, author of, City Kid: A Writer’s Memoir of Ghetto Life and Post-Soul Success
"A powerful memoir about a woman's odyssey for connection, self-identity, and love."
Kirkus Reviews
"In this intimate and generous memoir, Kristal Brent Zook explores the complexities of her past and the consummation of her present as a biracial daughter of a white father who left and the Black mother and grandmother who raised her."
Karla J. Srand, Ms. Magazine
"Zook recalls a childhood haunted by her missing father-and complicated by his return. A brave, heart-stirring memoir."
People
