A Princess Found: An American Family, an African Chiefdom, and the Daughter Who Connected Them All

From Publishers Weekly

As a biracial child adopted into a nurturing white middle-class family in West Virginia, Sarah Culberson experienced warmth, stability and personal fulfillment while growing up. Like most adopted children, Culberson had questions about her biological roots, and as a biracial child dealt with the additional emotional burden of negotiating the world of racial identity. After being questioned by a teacher as to why she wore blue contact lenses, a stunned and embarrassed Culberson begins the journey to find-and embrace-her roots. Her story quickly becomes extraordinary, as she discovers her father is not just alive and living in Africa, but is part of African royalty, making her an African princess. This entertaining, informative, inspiring memoir is told through two narratives taken up in alternating chapters: one details Culberson's story of growing up, going off to college, and ultimately establishing a life for herself in the arts; the other recounts her father's incredible story of falling in love with Culberson's American mother, his struggle to keep his family alive during Sierra Leon's brutal civil war, and the remarkable reunion of father and daughter.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—Popular with her classmates and loved by her adoptive family, African-American Sarah Culberson has never truly felt that she belonged. After graduating from high school and moving away for college, she began to seek the truth about her biological parents. She eventually hired a private investigator and learned that while her mother was a white woman, now deceased, her father is African royalty—the chief of a Mende tribe. She eventually traveled to Sierra Leone and saw firsthand both the poverty and the beauty that exist in the war-torn nation. Interspersed with Culberson's story are chapters chronicling her father's life in a village ravaged by rebels. She describes his years as a refugee in a crowded and unsanitary city and the return and rebuilding of his home and school. This eloquently written memoir covers the isolation an African-American child can feel in a predominantly white environment; the technical aspects and emotional turmoil of a search for biological parents; and the contrast between American wealth and African poverty. The author realizes the high expectations placed on her by her father's tribe, not only because she is an American, but also because she is their princess. Teens will relate to her search for a balance between her ancestry and familial obligations and her life in the United States. The narrative style keeps the memoir moving forward yet the historical and cultural information it imparts is as significant as its entertainment value.—Karen E. Brooks-Reese, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.