Jacqueline Woodson offers a deep and tender look at friendship and growing up in a novel that spans almost two years in the lives of three African American girls in the mid-1990s. The story’s unnamed narrator and her best friend, Neeka, have been like sisters since infancy. They move in and out of each other’s homes with the certainty of belonging, and share angst and frustration over loving mothers who keep a tight watch over everything they do. When D Foster enters their lives, she is a complete unknown, and parts of her life remain a mystery over the next two years. D is eleven, too, but she lives with a foster mother who lets her wander the city, trusting D to stay out of trouble and come home each night. And she does. D is determined to have a future—find her Big Purpose—and that means playing by the rules. She is looking for friendship, and the two best friends find it easy to expand their hearts and embrace her. D shares their love of Tupac Shakur, whose songs speak truths they understand and dreams they hope for, and she has more freedom than either of them imagines possible for her own life. All three girls have seen and experienced much that is unfair, from D’s lengthy time in foster care to the homophobia that Neeka’s flamboyantly gay older brother Tash has had to endure (even Pac, they note, doesn’t have nice things to say about people like Tash). But all three girls are smart, sensitive, and open-hearted, and these are strengths that, together with the bond they share, fill Woodson’s novel with so much hope for their future. (Ages 10–14)

A Newbery Honor Book

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend’s lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are crazy about Tupac Shakur’s rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where he’s coming from, and through knowing D, Tupac’s lyrics become more personal for all of them.

The girls are thirteen when D’s mom swoops in to reclaim D—and as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone, too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.