It's not often I want to award 6 stars to a book, but this story deserves it. It's a debut novel. I have heard that first novels are highly biographical. This does, in places, feel very much as if it were lived, not merely imagined.
We have here a black young man, a teenager, a senior in high school. His family is from Jamaica. He lives in a highly Caribbean neighborhood in Brooklyn. He is transferring to a private school in Manhattan because they have a better STEM and robotics program than his old school. Check that. He's transferring because the new school has a robotics program. His old school barely has computers.
Of course, the new school is mostly white. They think they are welcoming and want these people of color in their school. After all, they have a handful of these people in every class. They have never checked if the Black and Asian students feel welcomed or wanted.
During his first week at school, our hero, Gil, is welcomed by three of the members of the football team. Gil is a black belt in an unspecified martial art, so, until he is thrown into a trophy case, Gil holds his own. When the school Dean shows up, Gil is surprised to find out he started the fight and will be suspended for a week and put on probation for a month, barred from all clubs including the robotics club, the reason he was requited for the school.
There is a lot going on in Gil's life. This is the year he learns time is a limited thing. He can't keep doing all the things he used to do and add the things his new high school needs him to do while trying to cope with the subtle microaggressions life in a mostly white space provides.
I will say I am white. I live in those white spaces. They are my normal. I would hope I am really welcoming to those who have had a different life experience. This story reminds me some folk want to share those places for reasons of their own. They didn't come to "educate" me or share their world. It is something to remember.
I highly recommend this book to one and all.
I received the copy of this book from the publisher through a website contest in exchange for this review.
Read this book. You'll like it. I love it.
We have here a black young man, a teenager, a senior in high school. His family is from Jamaica. He lives in a highly Caribbean neighborhood in Brooklyn. He is transferring to a private school in Manhattan because they have a better STEM and robotics program than his old school. Check that. He's transferring because the new school has a robotics program. His old school barely has computers.
Of course, the new school is mostly white. They think they are welcoming and want these people of color in their school. After all, they have a handful of these people in every class. They have never checked if the Black and Asian students feel welcomed or wanted.
During his first week at school, our hero, Gil, is welcomed by three of the members of the football team. Gil is a black belt in an unspecified martial art, so, until he is thrown into a trophy case, Gil holds his own. When the school Dean shows up, Gil is surprised to find out he started the fight and will be suspended for a week and put on probation for a month, barred from all clubs including the robotics club, the reason he was requited for the school.
There is a lot going on in Gil's life. This is the year he learns time is a limited thing. He can't keep doing all the things he used to do and add the things his new high school needs him to do while trying to cope with the subtle microaggressions life in a mostly white space provides.
I will say I am white. I live in those white spaces. They are my normal. I would hope I am really welcoming to those who have had a different life experience. This story reminds me some folk want to share those places for reasons of their own. They didn't come to "educate" me or share their world. It is something to remember.
I highly recommend this book to one and all.
I received the copy of this book from the publisher through a website contest in exchange for this review.
Read this book. You'll like it. I love it.