Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi

★★★★★

As the inside jacket states, "Black is urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more - because there are countless ways to be Black enough." I hope young black Americans, whatever their background, find themselves reflected in these pages. Non-black Americans should read these stories as windows into communities they might not otherwise see.

This collection of 17 short stories reflects the diversity within the black community. A number of the stories feature LGBTQ characters. Issues span the spectrum from code switching to sexual identity to death and suicide; from family dynamics and mental health to friendships and relationships; from self-identity to the power of musical influence to sexual assault.

These stories resonate. They are honest and relevant, social media use and all. The voices are compelling, the dialogue authentic. Individually, my ratings for stories varied from 3 to 5 stars, and averaged to 4.3, but the book on the whole gets 5 stars for its range and importance.

Reading these stories as a Chinese-American, the more I read, the more I wished there was such an anthology for young Asian-Americans. I can only imagine how self-affirming it might have felt to read a book called "Asian Enough: Stories of Being Young & Asian in America" as a teenager.

Below I am listing each individual story, a brief summary, and my personal rating for each (sans explanation, because that would take too long).

1. "Half a Moon" by Renee Watson (★★★★★): A teen counselor at a camp that encourages black city girls to appreciate nature finds herself unexpectedly dealing with unresolved family issues.


2. "Black Enough" by Varian Johnson (★★★★★): A black boy from an affluent, predominantly white community learns something about himself when he spends time with his cousin and his friends in a predominantly black community in South Carolina.


3. "Warning: Color May Fade" by Leah Henderson (★★★★): A talented black senior in an affluent, predominantly white private boarding school struggles with speaking her truth through art in the face of parental disapproval.


4. "Black. Nerd. Problems." by Lamar Giles (★★★★★): An entertaining glimpse into the world of mall employment through the eyes of a black teenager who self-identifies as a sci-fi nerd.


5. "Out of the Silence" by Kekla Magoon (★★★): A girl with a secret tries to come to terms with the unexpected death of a classmate, the only other person who knew her secret.


6. "The Ingredients" by Jason Reynolds (★★★★★): Heartwarming banter among four buddies in Brooklyn walking home from the local pool on a hot summer day.


7. "Oreo" by Brandy Colbert (★★★★★): An upper middle class black girl in a predominantly white suburb of Chicago gets accepted to a historically black college, visits her family in a rural, predominantly black community in Missouri, and wonders if attending an HBCU is the right decision for her.


8. "Samson and the Delilahs" by Tochi Onyebuchi (★★★): Star of the debate team, the straitlaced son of a Nigerian immigrant meets his new neighbor, a black girl who introduces him to heavy metal music, unlocking a part of himself he didn't know was missing.


9. "Stop Playing" by Liara Tamani (★★★★★): Houston-area teens at a church youth retreat navigate the complexities of relationship drama.


10. "Wild Horses, Wild Hearts" by Jay Coles (★★★): In the rural South, a black farm boy gets to know the white farm boy next door, though their parents are in a feud and are narrow-minded in different ways.


11. "Whoa!" by Rita Williams-Garcia (★★★★): A part-time model and fashion student sees, in his great-grandmother's water basin, a vision of an 1840s slave, with whom he has an improbable conversation.


12. "Gravity" by Tracey Baptiste (★★★★★): A Trinidadian immigrant in Brooklyn is sexually assaulted.


13. "The Trouble with Drowning" by Dhonielle Clayton (★★★★): In the DC area, a girl from a wealthy family, with emotionally detached parents, struggles in the aftermath of traumatic events.


14. "Kissing Sarah Smart" by Justina Ireland (★★★★): A mixed race girl spends the summer between high school and college visiting her white grandmother in small-town Maryland and coming to terms with her sexual identity while her mother tends to her own mental health.


15. "Hackathon Summers" by Coe Booth (★★★★★): Every summer in high school, a boy from Rochester attends a weekend hackathon at NYU, where he falls for a Muslim girl.


16. "Into the Starlight" by Nic Stone (★★★★★): An upper middle-class girl from a well-to-do part of Atlanta gets to know a boy with a bad reputation from a less privileged, predominantly black part of town.


17. "The (R)evolution of Nigeria Jones" by Ibi Zoboi (★★★): A girl raised in a cult-like community dedicated to black nationalism doesn't actually believe in the movement and wants to break free.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

★★★★

A 12-year-old black boy named Jerome is killed by a white police officer. The book opens with Jerome's death. It's a first-person narrative, and both chapters and time alternate between Jerome narrating events after his death as a ghost, and Jerome narrating events before his death as they unfolded while he was alive. As a ghost, Jerome watches his family mourn, and he gets to know both the police officer's daughter, who struggles to come to terms with her father's actions, and Emmett Till, who tells Jerome his story.

Jerome is just a regular boy, but sadder than the average main character of a children's book, because even though he's bullied - which is common in children's books - he doesn't have any friends. This detail stood out to me, because characters in books always have at least one or two good friends, but when we meet Jerome, he really had no friends.

I appreciated having the window into the police officer's family, which I didn't expect.

The writing is evocative, sometimes poetic. Other times sentences seem abbreviated, almost cut short. I've read a couple other books by Jewell Parker Rhodes, and this just seems to be her style.

As I read this book, I was not quite sure how to categorize it. It's a children's book, available in the library's "Y" section, and yet I think some kids would get more out of it by reading it in middle school, or even high school. On the one hand, there is a lot of difficult content that even adults have a hard time processing; I teared up every few pages. Part of me feels like maybe children in elementary school shouldn't be "exposed" to this kind of heavy truth at so young an age. But then right away I know that is my privilege talking; the black victims of police brutality, and their families and friends, don't get to choose when they are exposed to racism and gun violence and murder. Jewell Parker Rhodes actually says herself, in the afterword, that her "hope is that parents and teachers will read Ghost Boys with their children and students." (p. 206) So maybe that's it; this book is an important and valuable read for all Americans, but it's best if kids have someone they can talk about the book with, and ask questions.

Ghost (Track #1) by Jason Reynolds

★★★★

Castle Cranshaw is a black boy, around 7th grade, who finds his way onto a competitive inner-city track team. Introducing himself to his new team, he uses his self-given nickname "Ghost" because ever since he was a victim of domestic gun violence, he's just felt like that word describes him.

Though this series is popular in the upper elementary grades at my child's school, some might consider it a better for fit the lower middle school grades. Besides the domestic gun violence, the book matter-of-factly references "junkies" and a "dope man" who sells drugs at the local basketball court. There's also a separate mention of an addict who overdoses.

The book is a first-person narrative, and the voice is authentic, poor grammar and all. The main character is a realistic portrayal of a kid trying to figure things out while carrying around a lot of angst. He understands that his single mother works hard to provide for him, and he wouldn't mind the knock-off sneakers and the free meals he gets from the cafeteria where his mom works - except that he gets bullied for those things in school. The author so effectively relates Ghost's inner monologue that I really feel for him when he has two mortifying experiences two days in a row. And while it's easy to know right from wrong, I can understand why Ghost makes the poor decisions he makes, and how he came to make those decisions, despite knowing better.

A few things kept me from giving this book a higher rating. Mostly I was disappointed in the abrupt ending, which came just as I thought I was on the cusp of a celebratory climactic ending. I'm the first person to deride an over-the-top perfect ending, but I can think of several ways the book could have ended with more closure while avoiding that trap. I can only assume that the author wants us to focus not on the finish line, but on the training and experiences that get us there.

Also, it didn't quite sit right with me that twice in the book Coach helped out Ghost in very significant ways without telling Ghost's mother. I get that Ghost and Coach were forming a relationship built on trust, but I think there are certain things that are important enough that mom really ought to know about them, especially since Ghost is still just around 12-13 years old, and many readers are even younger than that. Telling mom didn't have to be major events in the story, maybe just something that could have been tied up in a denouement.

Finally, one of my pet peeves is one-dimensional bullies, and Brandon Simmons seemed to fit that profile. I just think it's too common for children's books to have one-dimensional bullies, and I wish more books would try to show that bullies aren't just purely evil children, they are usually acting out for some reason or another. Within the very last pages, there is a hint that maybe there is more to Brandon than meets the eye, and I'm hoping that his character will be fleshed out more in the subsequent books, which I'm looking forward to reading.

A Wind in the Door (Time #2) by Madeleine L'Engle

★★★½

I think I liked this book better than A Wrinkle in Time because I already knew what to expect, so I didn't spend so much time wondering what was going on. I have an even vaguer recollection of this book than A Wrinkle in Time, though I'm pretty sure I read it back in the 4th grade because I remember having a conversation with a classmate about not understanding whether or not farandolae were real or just made up. (They are made up.) Since this series is generally recommended for ages 10 and up, I guess my reading comprehension skills just weren't up to snuff as a kid.

This book follows much the same template as A Wrinkle in Time. In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which guide Meg and company on a journey through the universe. Charles Wallace's life is in danger, and Meg needs to save him by overcoming her fear and using the power of love. In A Wind in the Door, Blajeny and Proginoskes guide Meg and company on a journey through a microcosmic universe. Charles Wallace's life is in danger, and Meg needs to save him by overcoming her lack of confidence and using the power of a different kind of love. Once again, events unfold against a backdrop of good versus evil, with the good side being wrapped in sometimes Christian language.

First published in 1973, there is still some old-fashioned charm, for example, when Meg assumes Calvin has a handkerchief, and he does. The book's denouncement of war and hate is timeless.

I really liked the "Naming," the idea that when someone "Names" you, when they really know you, then you are. Your existence is affirmed and you are rooted in being. I also liked how "kything" put a word on the idea of truly gaining courage and strength from those who would give you these qualities.

There's a satisfying message about everything, and everyone, being important, no matter how seemingly inconsequential. It actually reminded me of a Bible verse about how every person in a community matters: "[S]o that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." --1 Corinthians 12:25-26