Her life changes suddenly when thirty-year-old Roxanne moves into the trailer park. Her refusal to pray for her sick brother probably caused his death.
The family is squashed into a run-down trailer where privacy is impossible. Her dirt-colored hair is thin as a duck's behind. Thirteen-year-old Jesse feels rotten about her life. There is little external action, even though Annie is a summer lifeguard and has a brief romance, but readers can empathize with Annie and see the value of an outsider to talk to. The author is inside Annie's head to show readers what she is thinking. Her younger brother has Coach Mac at school to whom he can talk the father and an older cousin who is part of the household are able to work through their grief but the mother is still in denial about Mog's death. Although Annie has friends who try to help her, it is not until she goes to a therapist that she is able to make plans for her future. The family is stunned by what happened and each crawls into his or her own shell. It is two years since Mog was murdered, an unsolved crime in Baltimore, and sister Annie is relating her efforts to cope with the after effects.
This universal search often involves the discovery that you can understand, or at least accept, others as you come to know yourself.įarrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996. Teens will respond to Mel's search for himself. Woodson's prose is lyrical and, with the exception of Mama's friend Kristin, her characters are alive. The diary entries are interspersed with dream meditations, and the dialogue maintains an engaging pace. Issues of sexual identity and race are presented in a believable and honest manner. Mama loves a woman, a white woman from another world, or so it seems to Mel. Mel finds that "the world turns upside-down when you are thirteen-going-on-fourteen." His notebooks detail anger, confusion, and denial as Mama introduces him to an important person in her life. " `What time is it?' I asked Mama.`Your growing time,' she replied." Melanin Sun's family consists of him and Mama alone. Should look forward to this continuation. Mature teens who have already enjoyed the tales that began with Then, one night, through a magic lamp, ghosts of Dirk's ancestors, including the mother and father he never knew, share tales of his past, present, and future through magical images, setting him free to know that true love in any form is right.įrancesca Lia Block paints another modern-day tale sharing the adventures of friends living in Shangri-L.A. The last person that he wants to hurt is his Grandma Fifi, who has lovingly provided a wonderful home for him in Hollywood. He doesn't want to be gay, but he knows that he is. Monseau, editorsĭirk McDonald is in conflict with his own identity. Clip and File Reviews of New Fiction Hardbacks
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