I'm so excited to share The Black Kids with you today on this blog tour for SimonTeen! This amazing novel came out August 4th, and I hope you'll go pick up a copy today! I also want to note that I am not an #OwnVoices reviewer for this book, and accepted the tour information because I knew SimonTeen also worked with Hear Our Voices Tours on a tour that did prioritize Black reviewers. The Book and its AuthorPerfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots. Los Angeles, 1992 Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer. Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids. As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson. With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them? Christina Hammonds Reed holds an MFA from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. A native of the Los Angeles area, her work has previously appeared in the Santa Monica Review and One Teen Story. The Black Kids is her first novel. (From the Simon & Schuster website) ReviewA compelling and grounded historic read, The Black Kids offers an intelligent perspective that is alarmingly relevant today. I must admit, I was not well educated on the 1992 Rodney King Riots before reading this novel, but I am now committed to continuing to learning more. Ashley Bennett’s voice was perfect for this story as a quintessential teen. She was far from perfect, and that’s exactly what we needed. Her socioeconomic status left her privileged and unaware—at times, she was outright impolite in collaboration with her mean-girl posse. However, we appreciate a character who learns and grows!! The Black Kids can also be considered a coming-of-age novel as Ashley reckons with the combination of her wealth and her Blackness, and what it means to be both in her LA neighborhood. I know talking about atmosphere is usually reserved for SFF books, but I’d say historical fiction is a hard genre to get right as well. It’s strange to me that the 90’s are considered historical now, because I mostly couldn’t distinguish this novel from a contemporary aside from the absence of iPhones and laptops. Regardless of that, it definitely gave off California vibes. Refer to my moodboard below for the New Englander’s perspective of what a “California vibe” is. The structure of the novel, with flashbacks to earlier times in Ashley’s lief The first-person narration and full account of Ashley’s life made the book that much more special for me. Taking away the measure of separation between the reader and the narration brings Ashley’s perspective, and the lessons she learns, to the forefront of the book. We feel her pain just as much as we see her mistakes, and we’re compelled to root for her through both the good times and the bad. I particularly appreciated Ashley’s interactions with her friends. Her wealthy white friends’ insensitive comments about race and deep-seated misunderstanding of the dangers Ashley could face when interacting with police officers is powerful (and sadly familiar to many BIPOC readers). I loved Ashley’s developing understanding of the kind of friendships she truly wants, and her later chats with LeShawn and Lana made me so happy because I felt that she truly was forming healthy relationships. I would highly recommend this novel to all readers. I can’t stress enough how essential it is, for both its existence as a historical YA covering an event many young Americans may not even know about, but also for its amazing writing and delivery. Moodboard
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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