Powerful Debut

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown

New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2020.

294 p. ; 22 cm.

This is a super creative and really well written debut YA novel.  The subtitle of Black Girl Unlimited is The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard, and it's back cover states, it is "Part memoir, part magic" - and these are two good clues to the power of this novel. This is no Harry Potter wizardry, but instead a kind of rare natural/supernatural inheritance of access to the power and mystery of the "in between zone." 

The novel deals head on with hard issues of sexual assault, drug addiction, poverty and crime - but does it in a way that is not despairing, but also not falsely optimistic. The hero of this novel is the main character, Echo Brown (see, there's the part memoir) who is academically talented and motivated. She only gradually realizes that she is a wizard and that her power as one is limited but can grow.  One of the coolest aspects is that as a wizard she can occasionally stop time and use that stopped time to try and influence others for the better.

The novel is a great story of the power of determination, bravery, family ties, intellectual curiosity and bravery in the face of addiction, poverty, racism and violence. 

My only hesitations with the novel (which I was surprised to not see brought up in reviews) are the heavy use of vernacular from characters in her poor neighborhood (including her Mom and brothers). And then there is an unfortunate description of one of the most powerful elderly women wizards as being "a quarter Cherokee on her mother's side" according to everyone in Echo's neighborhood, and who is also said to have "learned all her magic stuff from her grandmother." 

That said, it's a powerful novel about obstacles and triumphs facing a young black girl as she comes of age and gets in touch with her inner strength and power.

     

No American Dream

American Street by Ibi Zoboi 

New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017]

324 p. ; 22 cm. 

American Street is a super book. I'm glad to see it got a lot of recognition - starred reviews and a finalist for the National Book Award. The book is the story of Fabiola, high school aged young woman who was born in the US, raised in Haiti and has returned to the US with her mother so they can rejoin the mother's sister and her three girls in Detroit. Of course, nothing goes smoothly: the mother (not a US citizen) is detained at the NYC airport by ICE while Fabiola is sent on to Detroit and tries to fit in to her aunt's family - a family full of love - but also serious troubles (debts, drug dealing, a dead father, and a crumbling neighborhood). 

The novel follows Fabiola as she tries to navigate the huge, strange country that is the United States, the dicey/lively city of Detroit, and the complicated relationships of her three cousins, who both form a formidable front, though each young woman has a striking and different personality.  

There are many sources of dramatic tension in the novel. Fabiola desperately wants to get her Mom out of ICE detention, she also falls hard in love, and she has to prove herself to her streetwise cousins, etc. In her desperation to get help for her mother, she makes the mistake of becoming an informant to a narcotics detective and things get VERY complicated and VERY dangerous. 

I won't give away the twists and turns of the plot, but after the first chapter things get very interesting. Readers are also easily introduced to the worldview of vodou through the perspective of Fabiola who believes in it and sees the world through that lens - to the point where there is a blurred boundary between the real and the magical/spiritual in many scenes.  In a lesser writer these could be a real weakness, but in this novel they add to its richness.

As you can tell, I'll definitely be recommending this book to readers.

Thumbs Up All the Way Down

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
New York : Atheneum, [2017]
306 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm a fan of Jason Reynolds, especially his When I was the Greatest, and somewhat of his foray into superhero fiction; this work did not disappoint.  I wasn't sure I'd like his novel in verse; when that genre fails, it reads like mediocre prose chopped into lines.  Instead, in this novel the poetry works.  The poems help to enhance the ghostly narrative of the work (the main character is visited by ghosts of friends and family who have been killed by guns), and Reynolds uses a lot of assonance, consonance and internal rhymes to keep the language snapping and tight.

The movement of Reynolds' story is also creative and satisfying.  Will, a young man is on his way to avenge the shooting/killing of his dearly loved older brother, Shawn.  Taking the elevator down from the 7th floor,  he is visited at each floor by the ghosts of various people he's known who have been shot.  These ghosts offer insights, challenges and experience to Will.

The novel manages to be moving, thought-provoking, and interesting.  It also doesn't end wrapped up and tidy.  I would definitely recommend this book.

Floats Like a Butterfly

Bed-stuy Setting of When I was the Greatest

When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2014]
231 p. ; 22 cm.  

This is one of those books that really exceeds expectations!  I read it because I saw that it had won the John Steptoe - New Talent / Coretta Scott King Award for 2015 and had received numerous positive reviews (e.g. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus), and I wanted to see for myself if it was a book I could recommend.  Also, I'm always on the lookout for diverse authors - our school is a very diverse school - and Jason Reynolds, a young African-American writer living in Brooklyn, interested me.

Would I recommend this book?  The answer is a definite Yes!  I loved this book.  One of the reviewers on Goodreads writes, "Jason Reynolds just slays the voice in this book.  Slays it," and I have to agree.  His voice reminded me a lot of Christopher Paul Curtis, the wonderful author of Bud not Buddy. But, where Bud not Buddy is aimed at middle school readers, Reynolds book hits right at the high school age reader.

What I loved about Reynolds book is that it deals with the rough life of the urban working poor and unemployed - and does so with humor, a light touch and a lot of heart.  There is action in this book, a bit of sex (or almost sex), physical violence, lawbreaking, and cussing, but the heart of the book is about loyalty, friendship, acceptance, and - dare one say it? - love.

It's funny to me that the cover, seen here,

was actually controversial!  I was disappointed with the cover, but not for it being too provocative.  On the contrary, I think it's a weak cover that doesn't grab the attention of a high school reader.  A stunning portrait of a kid in a fight, or shadows on a Brooklyn street, or hustlers on a street corner would have been far more compelling.  Honestly, when I first saw the book, I thought "Oh, cool it's a new LGBT book!" For the record, it's not.

Cover aside, I will definitely recommend this book to any student looking for an all-around good read or a fresh take on urban life, drama, and growing up.

Predators and Prey

Knockout Games by G. Neri
Minneapolis, MN : Carolrhoda Lab, [2014]
293 p. ; 20 cm.

In spite of the generally positive reviews for this book, I've got to give this novel a mixed review. I appreciate what G. Neri is trying to do - get inside the minds and hearts of kids involved in "knockout games" - the brutal crime of attacking a random stranger with the idea of knocking them out with one vicious blow. He tries this through the main character, Erica, who has landed in a rough area St. Louis after her parents split up.  She has a talent for video editing and ends up involved with  the group of high school/middle school kids who are victimizing strangers in her neighborhood with their random assaults.  She especially gets in deep emotionally with Kalvin, the charismatic leader and "Knockout King" of the group.

The novel is set in St. Louis and closely parallels the real knockout game story that transpired there. Neri does a pretty good job of showing how peer pressure, boredom, and machismo create a lure for the "game" but I just never found myself drawn in to the main character's motivations.  Frankly, she's kind of a repulsive character, getting off on editing videos of the attacks and even assaulting one of the victims herself.

Neri seems to want to just tell the story, and not preach a lot, which is fine.  But I think what he really fails to convey is the absolute terror and life altering experience that being a victim of the knockout game would be.  He tries to in the one case that goes horrifically wrong, resulting in a murder - but that is it.

I will say that the pace of the novel picks up as it goes on, especially as all of Erica's really bad decisions and actions begin to have consequences for her and those around her.

I won't be recommending it to students, but I will be curious to see and hear what students think of it if they do read it.

Hard Life, Good Read

Tyrell by Coe Booth
New York : PUSH, c2007.
310 p. ; 18 cm. 

I've been planning to read this book for years.  This year there was an uptick in demand for all of Coe Booth's books - Tyrell, Kendra, and Bronxwood - so it seemed like a good time to take this novel home and read it.  I was not disappointed.

Tyrell is a tough book - there is a lot of profanity, drug use, fights, sexual situations and overall gritty scenes throughout the novel, but it all feels very necessary to the power of this novel. The hero, fifteen year old Tyrell, has to figure out how to make his way in a world where his father is in prison, his mother is completely immature, selfish, and incompetent and many of his role models are sexist, aggressive, law-breaking young men.  He wants to do right by his family (especially his young brother), his friends, his girl friend, and his conscience.  Tyrell is smart, friendly, and great with DJing, something he learned from his father. But with his father in jail, his mother worthless as a parent, he has to figure out how to get himself and his family out of the filthy temporary hotel that they are stuck in after losing their apartment.

The thing I loved about Tyrell, is that all the characters are complex. Characters has their strengths and some serious weaknesses.  The main character, Tryell, can be heroic, but he can also be a liar, a macho hypocrite, and aggressive.  But he wants to make something of himself, and has a strong ethical code of honor that he reflects on even when he falls short.  Booth's skill is creating interesting, vivid characters who reflect the wide range of human strengths and weaknesses as they navigate the distressing and profoundly unfair world of inner city poverty.

It's too bad that a novel like this could not be taught in a classroom curriculum (there's just too much raw language and situations) because there are so many ethical and moral dilemmas that come up throughout the novel - and the novel is popular with young men and women.  It may not be suitable for the classroom, but it is a book that many young people, including reluctant readers are bound to embrace.

Light Read, but a Good Read

If I Was Your Girl by Ni-Ni Simone
New York : Kensington Pub. Corp., 2008
viii, 261 p. ; 22 cm.

Ni-Ni Simone is an extremely popular author at our library, and so I finally got around to reading one of her novels to see what makes her books spend so much time off the shelves and in the hands of readers.

After reading If I Were Your Girl, I understand the appeal of her books.  Simone is great with dialogue and conveying the attitude of her characters.  She's also skilled at moving the plot along, while creating a rich array of interesting characters.  One of the things I really enjoyed about Simone is that she is able to explore the mistakes and shortcomings of her characters without being preachy, but is also able to show them developing and succeeding in ways that are interesting and not always predictable.

I especially liked how Simone is able to make a really creepy "player" like Quamir - the main character's first boyfriend - believable to the point where the reader almost believes his lies and lines. With convincing dialogue and scenes we are able to sympathize with Toi, the main character as she struggles to figure out which characters actually care about her, and which characters are simply out to use her.

Finally, the plot is really satisfying in that Toi's maturation and development during the novel is reasonable and not miraculous - and the life she creates as a young teen mother is redemptive, but still not easy.

I am truly grateful that there are authors like Simone who are writing for the teens, especially young women, who want the realism and grittiness of urban fiction and novels with "drama" - but is able to do it with meaningful characters and dialogue, instead of simply peppering her narrative with graphic sex and obscene language.