Fourteen year old Kendra lives with her loving but very strict Nana in the Bronx. Her mother, who she calls Renee, is just finishing up her Ph.D. and starting her first teaching job. Kendra yearns to live with her and be a bigger part of her life. The abandonment and rejection she feels when her mother shows no sign of wanting her is searing. She becomes sexually involved with hot Nashawn who her best friend (and aunt) also has a crush on. She is ashamed yet excited by what she is doing with Nashawn (including oral and anal sex). When Nana discovers what is going on, she cries and says, "Why are you doing this? Why? I'd been doing so good with you, and now"... She shakes her head. "What did I do wrong this time?" (Renee was 14 when she became pregnant with Kendra). Nana insists that Renee take Kendra in. The first part of the book is very gritty and real feeling. In the final section of the book, Kendra and her mother come together, Nashawn and Kendra develop a relationship that is more than sex, and Kendra's best friend forgives her. This seems to me to be a bit too easy to be realistic.
is the second book by Coe Booth. The first book,
Tyrell, was also critically acclaimed. In an interview in
Teacher Librarian (April 2009), Booth was asked whether her books were too edgy for young readers. She answered that when she was a crisis intervention counselor, she made frequent home visits and got to see firsthand the chaos so many children and teens are living in. "All too often these teens are carrying adult burdens before they are ready. So I choose to write about teenagers in these situations because they exist and they are not often reflected in literature."Coe Booth communicates with her fans in various ways including Facebook and Twitter.
Fourteen year old Kendra lives with her loving but very strict Nana in the Bronx. Her mother, who she calls Renee, is just finishing up her Ph.D. and starting her first teaching job. Kendra yearns to live with her and be a bigger part of her life. The abandonment and rejection she feels when her mother shows no sign of wanting her is searing. She becomes sexually involved with hot Nashawn who her best friend (and aunt) also has a crush on. She is ashamed yet excited by what she is doing with Nashawn (including oral and anal sex). When Nana discovers what is going on, she cries and says, "Why are you doing this? Why? I'd been doing so good with you, and now"... She shakes her head. "What did I do wrong this time?" (Renee was 14 when she became pregnant with Kendra). Nana insists that Renee take Kendra in. The first part of the book is very gritty and real feeling. In the final section of the book, Kendra and her mother come together, Nashawn and Kendra develop a relationship that is more than sex, and Kendra's best friend forgives her. This seems to me to be a bit too easy to be realistic.
9 comments:
Wow, I would actually feel awkward having a book on the school library shelf that included anal sex, but it should be there, I suppose, since based on what I've read plenty of young people are engaging in it (especially those who want to abstain from sex until marriage, as they tend to view sex as vaginal intercourse). Jeez, was that all one sentence? It sounds like a good book, except the end. I like happy endings but not when they don't seem authentic.
Wow! Tis sounds like a really intense book. I think young kids need to see that 1) other kids are experiencing what they are and that they are not alone and 2) kids are experiencing some things that others are not and to be aware and watch out for these things. I do not like that the ending is a bit hokey. Kids can pick up on that stuff and if they do not think it is realy, they will break from it.
Actually Amber, I felt awkward even mentioning the sex in the blog. But it is something that a librarian should know about before buying the book. This book is definitely not for middle school.
Kendra's grandmother is always accusing her of being with boys and says that she is going to have her virginity "checked". Nashawn comes up with the "solution" to that.
While we wish it wasn't true, way too many kids who are not ready for sex are having sex. And, as Kendra finds, once they start it isn't that easy to go back.
I can see how some people would view this type of book as Edgy, but I agree with the author. Many teenagers face adult issues and many of the people around them chose to turn their head because they don't want to believe it. I think it is great that their are authors like her that are not afraid to write about these issues.
The story seems a little...confusing. All the difficult family relationships and how that effects Kendra could be very interesting, although it sounds like it all resolves a little too cleanly in the end. Strange that I can call a book with all that sex "clean." From your description it sounds like the message regarding the sex is, "if you have sex, there are other things that come with it." Does the book conclude with reflection on that? Their relationship moves into something beyond just sex, does it encourage any particular opinions on sex? That might carry even further value.
Wow, what an edgy book. It's interesting that the author wanted to include these adult situation, but why does it end so nicely? In real life things don't usually work out so well. It sounds like the message is that no matter how bad things get, things will work out in the end. It doesn't seem realistic.
Sounds like a very edgy book but very much in line with what today's teen's face and engage in. I am wondering - has this book been banned? I am not sure if I would have this in my media center or not
I'm trying to figure out what the message of this book was. It seems that girls with self esteem issues often think intimacy with a boy will make the bad feelings go away. Often it doesn't end well, usually the relationship does not develop beyond sex. Were any alternate ways offered that she could address her feelings of rejection?
Sounds like a pretty close to real life at least the one I hear in school everyday. I think that it is a good book to have available to students to see how others work through the problem and that there are solutions.
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