“A gently told memoir of a cherished woman.”

— Kirkus Review

“Child examines a Jewish child’s loving relationship with Mattie Culp, a Black woman in the segregated South. Told in vignettes, the book jumps between scenes from Goldman’s middle-class childhood and her adult interactions with Culp. Its patterns emphasize the length of their relationship, leading to suspense about how Goldman’s concepts of racism will change. This, along with the mystery of Culp’s personal life, propels the memoir. A rich memoir that is long overdue.”

— Foreword Reviews

“Child is a book of beauty. It is a story built of recovered scenes and pristine details—examples of exquisite writing that could lie at the foundation of any teaching textbook. But Child is also a book of great complexity, a pondering of the love that grows within the hold of racial and social disequilibrium…. Goldman’s memories of her young years with Mattie glow; in Child, they are gorgeously, seamlessly rendered—lovely and tethered sentences held within the clasp of short, compelling chapters.”

— Beth Kephart, for Juncture Notes 68

“According to the late Pat Conroy, Judy Goldman is a writer of ‘great luminous beauty,’ and I happen to agree with him…. Child is full of Judy asking tough questions of herself, her family, and the place she has always called home. ‘How do I cross-examine the way it was?’ she asks in one scene. ‘Can we ever tell the whole truth to ourselves?’ she asks in another.”

— Wiley Cash, for Pinestraw Magazine, O’Henry Magazine, Walter Magazine, and SouthPark Magazine

“I was swept up in the author’s vivid recounting of her story — a privileged Jewish child raised by her family’s African American housekeeper in Rock Hill, South Carolina during the 1940’s. The author’s straightforward prose is filled with detailed descriptions and wide-eyed insights into the people around her. It is a fascinating memoir of the love between a child and her black nanny during the Jim Crow era. As the author vividly recalls the events and circumstances of her life, she realizes she may not have understood them as they really were. It is this questioning that ties us to the author as she seeks to uncover the realities of a central relationship in this moving memoir. Clearly, Judy Goldman’s new book Child has captivated me.”

— Charlotte Jewish News

“Child is brave and lyrically told, a hymn of praise to a woman Goldman adored.”

— Dannye Romine Powell, for The Charlotte Observer