By Paula Chase
HarperCollins Publishers, 2018. Fiction.
Tai is excited for summer to end so her best friend Jamila will come home from her aunt's house in the suburbs and back to their low-income housing projects called Pirates Cove. Tai and Mila have been inseparable since they were toddlers, but Mila hasn't even sent Tai a single text the whole summer - and then she comes back acting weird. Mila is happy to be home with her dad and brothers, but sort of wishes that he would send her to live in the suburbs forever like her older sister - then she wouldn't have to stress about her dance audition for the big new Talented and Gifted Program or about accidentally revealing her secret to someone. Especially to Tai.
This is a book that carries quite a bit of heft in a small volume. Tai and Mila are two very different and interesting Black characters dealing with crushes, secrets, and very real issues. The story is told in dual-perspective with alternating chapters from Tai and Mila which helps to remind readers that we don't usually know the whole story. This is a very brave book that doesn't back down from dealing with real issues that worry many young people, but the expertly handled Vernacular English is what gives this novel real life. Paula Chase has a clear understanding of young people and a good sense for Black youth culture which really shines through. This is a book for fans of contemporary realistic fiction who know that ordinary kids have stories to tell.
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