Others: Positive For August, running into a long-ago friend sets in motion resonant memories and transports her to a time and a place she thought she had mislaid: 1970s Brooklyn, where friendship was everything. August, Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi shared confidences as they ambled their neighborhood streets, a place where the girls believed that they were amazingly beautiful, brilliantly talented, with a future that belonged to them. But beneath the hopeful promise there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where mothers disappeared, where fathers found religion, and where madness was a mere sunset away. Woodson heartbreakingly illuminates the formative period when a child meets adulthood -- when precious innocence meets the all-too-real perils of growing up. --
Lists: …
Maureen Johnson
2004 · 377 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe friendship of three high school girls and their relationships with their friends and families are tested when two of them fall in love with each other.
What made the match, strongest first
Nancy Garden
1982 · 233 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveThis groundbreaking book is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. This book is so truthful and honest, it has been banned from many school libraries and even publicly burned in Kansas City.
What made the match, strongest first
Kayla Ancrum
2017 · 301 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveBest friends August and Jack struggle to cope as one spirals into madness.
Richard Bach
1977 · 143 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveWonderfully written, a glimpse into faith, self-reliance and friendship, witty and thought provoking. Barnstorming pilot meets a messianic man who has misgivings about his purpose. His scripture is captured in a greasy spiral bound notebook and he changes the lives of all he meets.
What made the match, strongest first
Renée Watson
2017 · 147 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveJade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And she has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Except really, it's for black girls. From "bad" neighborhoods. And just because Maxine, her college-graduate mentor, is black doesn't mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.
What made the match, strongest first
Akwaeke Emezi
2019 · 206 pages · 8 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveThere are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption's house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question*--How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist? Acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi makes their riveting and timely young adult debut with a book that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itnext I had Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson. this is my favorite for the writing and also because I got to be part of a YouTube original in 2020 where I was one of the people who interviewed Jacqueline Woodson and I got to fly to Brooklyn and it was absolutely incredible.
