THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW PONCHO

A veteran journalist, activist, and writer embarks on a journey of introspection and healing.

Zook, a journalism professor at Hofstra and author of Color by Fox and I See Black People, grew up in 1970s Los Angeles with her mother and grandmother. There were candles, tarot, wrestling, tears, and joy, but there was also something missing. A biracial girl raised by Black women and abandoned by her White father, Zook was on a quest to find her place in the world. In this book, she writes, “I take a journey back to a time when I recognized the power of others to move mountains but couldn’t quite see the brightness of my own star. This story is my testament to the power of forgiveness and settling into one’s own authentic identity. In short, it’s my rediscovery of a little girl who once stood tall and joyful in her favorite, beloved yellow poncho.” That little girl in the yellow poncho spent the next few decades searching for answers about herself, injustice, family, friends, politics, and race. As she examines her life and successful journalism career, the author writes with a pleasing combination of anger, consolation, and candid reflection. Readers get the sensation of peeking into a diary. One of the primary elements of the book is her tumultuous relationship with her father, which Zook reevaluates throughout the text. Zook is an impressive stylist, and her words teeter between witty and devastating. Highlighting what it means to be a biracial woman and declaring space for herself, Zook delivers a contemplative, therapeutic, and spiritual work. “I saw myself as a race woman, in the old-fashioned Ida B. Wells sense of the word; a journalist who dug deep to lay bare injustices and hold a mirror to our collective trauma and triumph. I was down for the cause, despite what some may have seen when they looked at me.”

A powerful memoir about a woman’s odyssey for connection, self-identity, and love.