Cover Image

This side of home

by Watson, Renée,

Format: Print Book 2015
Availability: Available at 7 Libraries 7 of 8 copies

Available (7)
Location Collection Call #
Braddock Carnegie Library Teen Fiction YA F WAT
Location  Braddock Carnegie Library
 
Collection  Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  YA F WAT
 
 
CLP - Allegheny Teen Fiction TEEN FICTION Watson
Location  CLP - Allegheny
 
Collection  Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  TEEN FICTION Watson
 
 
CLP - Main Library Teen Department - Teen Fiction TEEN FICTION Watson
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Teen Department - Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  TEEN FICTION Watson
 
 
CLP - Squirrel Hill Teen Fiction TEEN FICTION Watson
Location  CLP - Squirrel Hill
 
Collection  Teen Fiction
 
Call Number  TEEN FICTION Watson
 
 
Community Library of Castle Shannon Young Adult Fiction YA Fic Watson
Location  Community Library of Castle Shannon
 
Collection  Young Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  YA Fic Watson
 
 
Sewickley Public Library Young Adult Fiction YA WAT
Location  Sewickley Public Library
 
Collection  Young Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  YA WAT
 
 
Springdale Free Public Library Young Adult Fiction YA WATS
Location  Springdale Free Public Library
 
Collection  Young Adult Fiction
 
Call Number  YA WATS
 
 
 
Unavailable (1)
Location Collection Status
Baldwin Borough Library Young Adult CHECKED OUT
Location  Baldwin Borough Library
 
Collection  Young Adult
 
Status  CHECKED OUT
 
 

Summary

From New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning author Renée Watson comes a captivating and poignant coming-of-age urban novel about sisters, friends, and what it means to embrace change.

Maya Younger and her identical twin sister, Nikki, have always agreed on the important things. Friends. Boys. School. They even plan to attend the same historically African American college.
But nothing can always remain the same.

As their Portland neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, Maya feels her connection to Nikki and their community slipping away. Nikki spends more time at trendy coffee shops than backyard barbecues, and their new high school principal is more committed to erasing the neighborhood's "ghetto" reputation than honoring its history. Home doesn't feel like home anymore. As Maya struggles to hold on to her black heritage, she begins to wonder with whom--or where--she belongs. Does growing up have to mean growing apart?

Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "*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.--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2015 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "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 13-up. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Twins -- Fiction.
Sisters -- Fiction.
Best friends -- Fiction.
Friendship -- Fiction.
Neighborhoods -- Fiction.
Urban renewal -- Fiction.
Dating (Social customs) -- Fiction.
Portland (Or.) -- Fiction.
Young adult fiction.
Publisher New York :Bloomsbury,2015
Language English
Description 326 pages ; 21 cm
ISBN 9781599906683
1599906686
9781619639300
1619639300
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