Review of How I became a mother of seven

[Precious Anavheoba]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "How I became a mother of seven" by Calanda J. Owens.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Abuse, neglect, emotional trauma, sexual baggage, and healing are words one can trace to the book How I Became a Mother of Seven: All My Life, I Had to Fight. Calanda J. Owens shares her story in order to reach out to others who might be going through hell.

Calanda was raised in an abusive family. She had a mother who didn't care for her but locked her in a basement while preventing her from having a smooth education. She also lived in a rough neighbourhood and eventually dated different men, some of whom got locked up for one crime or another. She tells her story with a bit of humour and a lot of fluidity.

After giving birth to her first child in her early twenties, things took another downturn in her life. Her marriage ends, and she eventually has to give birth to the rest of her children under difficult and compromising circumstances, one of which was even a result of rape. The story is sad, even though Owens told it with a light heart.

What started off as a memoir soon morphed into a detailed self-help book filled with so much valuable information. Through her book, I saw how harsh American society was, especially for women in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I mean, nearly every male she met had sexual molestation, rape, or abuse at their fingertips, as if waiting to unleash it on the next female they met.

I appreciate the author's inclusion of step-by-step essential information for struggling parents or young people in very terrible situations. The book can serve as a guide for such people when trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.

She included things like how to prepare for an interview, websites to visit to look for jobs, documents needed to get one's high school transcript, how to get a mortgage, knowing one's rights when dealing with the police, insurance policies, etc. This is quite commendable.

In addition to this, Calanda Owens leaves a compilation of her thoughts on certain concepts in our world today. She talks about things like respect, safe sex, emotional intelligence, gratitude (to one's helpers), and self-love. She really put a lot of work into it.

However, there are some things about this book that disrupted my reading. The narrative aspect does not flow so smoothly, and it constitutes a problem for the overall reading experience. One will only be able to scale through it if they can look past it.

Also, some of the tenses are not used correctly (grammar and typographical errors), and the book is not well formatted. I could not copy, paste, or highlight the text. I recommend that it be given to a professional editor and publisher so that these issues can be eliminated.

Lastly, I kept looking forward to the conclusion of the story of how the author came to have the rest of her kids, but the book simply continued with advice and the author's thoughts about certain things. It wasn't explicitly narrated the way the first part of the book was, and I had to figure it out myself.

I recommend this book to single parents (young or old), victims of rape, maltreatment, sexual molestation, and those in foster care. If you're trying to start over by putting your life together from scratch, this book is a step-by-step guide written for you.

The book is on the brink of getting a 3-star rating, but I will rate it 4 out of 5 stars because of all the problems I encountered while reading. The book can get a perfect rating if the issues are removed.

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How I became a mother of seven
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[Mkpibe Aloychris]

I recommend this book after reading as a review I want to say that the book is very very interesting and is advised that every every couple or parents ,should adhere to what this book is saying that there should be no form of family abuse,no crime, no fighting, no sexual abuse etc .and
The purpose of this article is to lay a good foundation for our kids to avoid turning bad influencing the society and affecting them afterwards .thank you

[Yasmine Zaki Muhieddine]

I was intrigued by the title; Indeed, how does one have so many kids especially when they live in difficult conditions. I have seen some women in real life and in today's society going through the same.

The author, Calanda J. Owens, has an interesting and inspiring story to tell. Her story alone would be an insightful learning moment.
I command that she also wants to bring awareness and guide the next person in similar situation, hence the step-by-step on how to get a mortgage, etc.

If I could give an advice to the author, it would be to write two separate books:
- one book: her life story (professionally edited) and I would love to read it.
- 2nd book: a step-by-step guide (inspired by her own story) on how to prepare for interviews, where to search for information, how to get a mortgage,...

Thank you for the review, hopefully the book will be edited and corrected.

[Anthony Caleb]

There are many phases that a mother passes through that the world does not acknowledge, reading this I was so touched.