Skip to main content

ENCHANTED STORIES: The Only Black Girls in Town

Image
By
The Only Black Girls in Town
By Brandy Colbert
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2020. Fiction.

Alberta is used to being the only Black girl her age in her small California beach town. For the most part things are pretty chill - her coach says she's the best surfer at camp, she loves living with her dads, and eating butter pecan ice cream with her best friend Laramie. Then, right before seventh grade, her dads bring home exciting news - another Black family is moving in across the street and they have a daughter, Edie, Alberta's same age. Though Alberta is a California surfer girl and Edie is a goth Brooklynite, the two become fast friends after they discover some mysterious old journals in Edie's attic. The two are dealing with a lot -- shifting family dynamics, microaggressions at school (the principal asks them if they're cousins on the first day and a teacher calls Edie by Alberta's name), and middle school drama (including Laramie starting to spend time with theschool mean girl who bullies Alberta with racist taunts).

This story about two very different friends trying to survive middle school is a compulsive one-sitting read. Edie and Alberta are immediately likable characters and readers will be eager to uncover the secrets of the mysterious journals along with the girls. These journals are a great tool to provide historical information (the murder of Emmett Till and the Montgomery bus boycott are emphasized) without seeming overly didactic. For me, the friendship between Edie and Alberta is a real highlight. The girls feel realistic and seeing two well-characterized Black girls at the center of a middle grade novel is wholly welcome. Readers who like realistic fiction will love this book.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Game of Noctis

By
A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...
Post a Comment
Read more