Skip to main content

So Done

Image
By
So Done
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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

By Anonymous
There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Super Boba Cafe

By
Super Boba Café By Nidhi Chanani New York: Amulet Books, 2023. Comics. 215 pages. 14-year-old Aria is excited to spend her summer in San Francisco getting quality time with her Nainai. She loves helping at her grandmother's Super Boba Café. But she can't help but notice that her grandmother is acting strange and secretive. She refuses to let Aria into the kitchen at all and she disappears at the same time each night without telling Aria where she goes. Meanwhile, Aria is eager to drum up more business for Super Boba Café. She gets a major windfall when the shop cat, Bao, surprises them by having kittens, and Aria realizes this is a major social media opportunity. She knows this will help Nainai's shop, but she is apprehensive to get back on social media after a terrible cyberbullying experience she had back home. As the shop starts to get busier, Nainai is more and more anxious about her secret project. This prompts Aria to investigate with help from her Nainai's neighb...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plain Kate

By
Plain Kate by Erin Bow Scholastic, 2010. 314 pgs. Fiction Katerina Svetlana is named after her mother, who died giving birth. Her father, Piotr the woodcarver, calls her plain Kate and she is soon known as Plain Kate, after the butcher's witticism, because she is "plain as a stick." But her father calls her Kate, my star. Piotr teaches his daughter to carve and she is on her way to becoming a master when her father dies of a strange sleeping sickness that plagues her town and the country round about. In a magical land, Kate has no magic but her skill. Still, she is so good her neighbors think her a witch and drive her away, but not before a real witch comes along and she trades him her shadow for the promise that she won't have to travel alone. He gives her a talking cat. Kate falls in with gypsies who also find reason to hurt and abandon her and she is rescued by the witch who takes her upriver in a terrible quest to avenge his dead sister and bring her back from...
Post a Comment
Read more