Skip to main content

Operation Sisterhood

Image
By

By Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
New York: Crown Books for Young Readers, 2022. Fiction.

11-year-old Bo is used to her quiet, cozy life with her single mother in their one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx. But when Mum announces her engagement to Bill, who makes Mum smile more than she ever has, Bo knows that big changes are coming. Changes like a new stepsister named Sunday, a move to Harlem, a change to "free schooling" and a big new chosen family with two more sisters, twins named Lee and Lil, and their parents who share Bill's brownstone along with a slew of pets. Bo's new family is welcoming and happy to include her, but the transition is overwhelming for Bo -- especially since she feels like she never gets time alone with Mum anymore. Still, she begins to grow closer to her sisters as the girls plan a neighborhood block party to celebrate Mum and Bill's marriage.

This is a happy novel about a blended family coming together and discovering all the different definitions of what it means to be a family. Though the cast of characters is pretty sprawling, each of the family members stands out as a vibrant and relatable character. An extra sprinkle of Black Girl Magic and an authentic depiction of Black girlhood is especially welcome. Rhuday-Perkovich was inspired by other stories of big families living in New York City and this new family with Bo, Sunday, Lil, and Lee, is one that readers will certainly want to join.
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

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

By
KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Kareem Between

By
  Kareem Between By Shifa Saltagi Safadi New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2024. Fiction. 324 pages.  Kareem loves football and as he gets ready to start seventh grade he dreams of someday becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. Seventh grade is not off to a great start for Kareem, after football tryouts don't go as he had planned, his best friend moves away, and his mom returns to Syria to help bring his sick grandfather to the US for treatment. So when Austin, the quarterback and coach's son, offers to talk to his dad and get Kareem on the football team in the spring, if he will cheat and do his homework for him, Kareem agrees. Kareem really wants to fit in at school and he is desperate to find a friend, but deep down he knows that doing Austin's homework isn't the right thing to do. And to make things harder, Kareem's mom asks him to be a friend to Fadi, a Syrian Christian refugee. He knows he should stand up for Fadi and help him adjust to the new school,...
Post a Comment
Read more