Journey Home: Passage to Womanhood - Softcover

Toni Eubanks is originally from Detroit, Michigan where most of her coming of age experiences took place against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s. After moving to New York in the 1980s, she began her work at Girl Scouts of the USA in program development. During her tenure, Eubanks developed a broad range of informal educational material for girls on self-esteem, values, health and fitness, and diversity. In 1999, she gained recognition for authoring the first official Girl Scout historical novel, Octavia’s Girl Scout Journey: Savannah 1916 (now out of print).
 
Eubanks says that the crowning achievement of her work has been the opportunity to touch the lives of girls all over the United States, to empower them to think critically, to analyze problems and issues, and to assume leadership roles. Her interest in the healthy development of adolescent girls, along with her research on the coming of age experiences of young Americans throughout history, led Eubanks to create her own series of juvenile historical fiction, “Passage to Womanhood.” Her research has taken her to the American West of the 1880s, the Gullah culture of South Carolina, and African American roots in Nova Scotia.
 
Eubanks has recorded her experiences in South Carolina in her essay, “A Sea Island Legacy,” published in the anthology of travel adventures, Go Girl! The Black Woman’s Book of Travel and Adventure. She has conducted workshops for the National Black Child Development Institute, Bank Street College Alumni Association in New York, the Arizona Genealogy Society, and schools and Girl Scout councils across the nation. She is a Finalist in the 2013 Harvest Book Reading’s Featured Book Competition in Phoenix, AZ.
 
Eubanks lives with her husband in the desert community of Anthem, Arizona; and teaches at South Mountain Community College. Her four granddaughters, two sets of twins, are her greatest inspiration.
 

“This novel for young readers chronicles the rich legacy and active participation of African Americans in the West.” —MultiCultural Review