This side of home
Record details
- ISBN: 9781619632134
- ISBN: 1619632136
- ISBN: 9781599906683
- ISBN: 1599906686
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Physical Description:
remote
1 online resource. - Publisher: New York : Bloomsbury, 2015.
Content descriptions
Source of Description Note: | Print version record. |
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Genre: | Electronic books. Fiction. Juvenile works. |
Other Formats and Editions
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2015 February #1
*Starred Review* Identical twins Maya and Nikki and their best friend, Essence, have lived in Portland, Oregon, in a traditionally African American neighborhood all their lives. At the end of their junior year at Richmond High School, Essence moves away when her alcoholic mother's landlord sells their home as gentrification begins to change the neighborhood. Maya, the more serious and sensitive of the twins, narrates both the events and her outrage when Nikki becomes best friends with the girl in the white family who buys Essence's former home. Then, when school resumes, Richmond's new principal seems bent on proving the school's "inclusiveness" by disrespecting its black students' traditions. Writing with the artfulness and insights of African American teen-lit pioneers Rita Williams-Garcia, Angela Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson, Watson shows Maya exploring concerns rarely made this accessible: the difficulties in mounting a student protest; the nuisance of unconscious racial bias perceived in white allies; the emotional chaos within as a cross-race romance develops for Maya despite her desire to ignore it. Authentic teen characterizations mean that questions and challenges aren't always answered and that Maya herself discovers the limits of her own awareness. Essential for all collections, without regard to color or racial and interracial awareness of readers. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2015 February
Three friends take on the changing world around themAfrican-American twins Maya and Nikki and their neighbor Essence have always had their lives completely planned. They'll date the right boys, attend historically black all-female Spelman College and be best friends forever.Â
But as their senior year starts, their surety gets shaky. Nikki appreciates the freshness and variety that gentrification has brought to their neighborhood, but Maya resents the lack of local black-owned businesses. Essence and her perpetually drunk mother move across town, and a wealthy white familyâincluding a cute boy and his racially ignorant sisterâmove in. As student council president, Maya finds herself constantly at odds with the new Richmond High principal, an outsider whose vision for the school doesn't match that of many students. As the year progresses, the three friends find that relationships can evolve, goals can shift and the past can help inform the present as well as the future.
There's never been a better time for author Renée Watson's YA debut. Narrator Maya is perceptive, whether participating in an ongoing hallway-postering campaign or explaining why a celebration of "tolerance" shouldn't replace Black History Month. A single racial slur appears in a particularly tense moment, but otherwise this is a gentle yet powerful reflection on choices, changes and contemporary African-American teenage identity.
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RELATED CONTENT: Read a Q&A with Watson about This Side of Home.Â
This article was originally published in the February 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
Copyright 2012 BookPage Reviews. - Horn Book Guide Reviews : Horn Book Guide Reviews 2016 Spring
Maya cycles through senior year, reflecting on changes to her closest relationships and her newly gentrified Portland, Oregon, neighborhood. Depictions of student activism focus on contemporary social issues and emphasize the importance of sankofa: "taking lessons from the past and bringing it into the future." Despite some unevenly nuanced characters, Watson's debut novel authentically protrays one African American teen's experiences. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2014 December #1
The summer before Maya and Nikki's senior year of high school brings new challenges as their previously all-black neighborhood becomes attractive to other ethnic groups. The twins, while still close, have been changing in recent years and now find they have very different views about the changes. Nikki is delighted with improvements in their surroundings, but Maya is concerned they come at too steep a price. When their best friend's family is displaced, the rift deepens: Maya wants to maintain their connection to Essence, while Nikki has become close to newcomer Kate. Nikki may even be abandoning their long-held plan to attend Spelman College together. Their new principal appears willing to sacrifice many of the traditions the African-American students hold dear. And though Maya and Devin are a long-established couple, Maya finds herself drawn to Kate's brother, Tony, despite her misgivings about interracial dating. Eventually, the students find a way to reach across the divi des and honor the community's past while embracing its changing present. Maya's straightforward narration offers an intriguing look at how families and young people cope with community and personal change. Maya and her friends are well-drawn, successful characters surrounded by a realistic adult supporting cast. Readers may be surprised to find this multicultural story set in Portland, Oregon, but that just adds to its distinctive appeal. Here's hoping Watson's teen debut will be followed by many more. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus 2014 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2014 December #3
As twins Maya and Nikki finish their junior year of high school, they have things planned out: summer, senior year, then attending Spelman College along with their best friend and neighbor Essence. But things are changing. The twins' historically black Portland neighborhood is gentrifying; Essence moves out, and a white family with a friendly daughter and an attractive son move in; and the new principal seems to think improvement means making the school less black. Watson (What Momma Left Me) hits key topics of class, race, and changing neighborhoods while telling a story about growing up, growing apart, and how love can come out of the blue, as well as across racial lines. Alas, the welter of issues and events means readers never get close enough to narrator Maya to really know her. Nikki is even less distinct, and the twins often seem like a set of paired opposites (one girl likes the new stores in their neighborhood, the other is suspicious of them, etc.), as opposed to fully realized characters. What results is a story that reads more as well-intentioned than entirely satisfying. Ages 13âup. (Feb.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2014 PWxyz LLC - School Library Connection : School Library Connection Reviews 2015 September
This coming-of-age story takes place in an area of Portland that is undergoing gentrification. Maya and Nikki, African American identical twins, are from a middle class intellectual family. Their best friend Essence is leaving because her home has been sold to an upwardly mobile white family. One twin will resent the invasion of the family, another will become friends with the new family and embrace the changes in the neighborhood. This is a wonderful book that deals with racial stereotypes and is thoughtful, well-written, and timely.
- Grades 8-12 - Suzanne Lay - Recommended - School Library Journal Reviews : SLJ Reviews 2014 December
Gr 9 UpâMaya is heading into her senior year at Richmond High, but it's nothing like she'd thought it would be. Her Portland neighborhood is changingâalong with her twin sister Nikki, her relationship with her boyfriend Tevin, and Maya's plans with Nikki and their BFF Essence to attend the same historically black college. Rent goes up, forcing Essence and her family to move further away from the twins. Tony and his family move in. Maya and Nikki deal with their changing "up-and-coming neighborhood" in different ways as they're forced to blend their ethnic and cultural identities and traditions with a changing community. Watson offers readers a personal account of what gentrification does to a neighborhood and those who live in it before the Whole Foods moves in. Maya has a fantastic voiceâhonest, passionate, and multidimensional. On top of all the "normal" teenage issues dealing with friends, romance, and the future, Maya has to deal with the changes her neighborhood is going through. She's compelled to act to make sure the original people, stores, and history don't disappear so quickly. Gentrification can be extremely difficult to discuss, but Watson delivers a well-rounded, delicate, and important story without sacrificing any heart. An engrossing and timely coming-of-age story.âEmily Moore, Camden County Library System, NJ
[Page 145]. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews : VOYA Reviews 2015 February
Watson's first book for young adults will impact the life of anyone who reads it. Through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old African American, Watson brings to light the issues that teens deal with every day. Nikki, the protagonist, deals with the hard questions that everyone thinks about, but no one has the courage to ask. She does not shy away from questioning cultural bias and traditions, and as the reader journeys with her, that reader realizes that he or she wants to know the answers as well. Especially poignant is when Nikki wonders, "I can't remember when I started to have these feelings of pride and shame. I remember feeling pride when a black person succeededâ¦and if a black person failed, I felt embarrassed. Do white people get that feeling? At the beginning of the story, Watson's words create vivid images of summertime. The book is divided into seasons and follows Nikki for her senior year in high school. She deals with many issues in that year, from her friend's turbulent relationship with an alcoholic mother to falling in love with a white boy and hiding the relationship out of shame. She confronts cultural changes in her neighborhood and school. She questions the emotional distance that starts to appear between her and her twin sister. As Nikki tries to make sense of where she fits in and whether or not she needs to change, she realizes she cannot control everything but she can make a difference. This is the heart of the story and one that every teen can relate to. Written in very short chapters that appeal to reluctant readers, this book is suitable for middle to high school and recommended for adults as well. At a time when there is a call for more diverse books, Watson brings to today's teens a story that needs to be read.âValerie Burleigh 5Q 4P M J S Copyright 2011 Voya Reviews.