Amazon.com

ALA Best Book of the Decade
1997 PEN\Norma Klein Honor
1997 Texas Library Assoc. YA Roundtable List
1996 Coretta Scott King Honor Book
1995 Best Books - School Library Journal
1995 Best Books - Publishers Weekly
1995 Best Books - American Library Association
1995 Books Recommended for Reluctant Readers - ALA
1995 Horn Books Fanfare Award
1996 CBC Notable in the Field of Social Studies- NCSS

A moving story of a fresh-mouthed, 14-year-old mother who finds strong roots in her family's past and the means for going forward. When Gayle is pregnant for the second time, her mother drags her off for an abortion, then puts her and her infant son on a plane for Georgia. Her uncle – a minister – and his wife and daughtr meet her with gretly varying degrees of welcome. Culture shock makes for some rough times, but Gayle unexpectledly discovers a kindred spirit in her bedridden great-grandmother, who not only becomes a confidante, but in an intense, spellbinding climactic scene passes on their family's history in a way that binds Gayle and her son firmly to past, present, and future. Williams-Garcia (Fast Talk on A Slow Track, 1991) plays off Gayle's street-forged language (no profanity, but otherwise authentically rude and gritty), expectations, and values brilliantly against her relatives' gentler conventions. Gayle is sharp and strong-minded, but gut-wrenchingly naive about some things; she continually startles, and is startled by, her devout, stricltly raised cousin Cookie. Without moralizing, the author gives readers a good, hard look at the limitations of a world view in which sex and children are casual events (Gayle's indifference to her abortion and to her son's father is downright chilling), then suggests that with love, respect and a push at the right time, no rut is too deep to escape. A gift from a gifted storyteller. (Fiction 12-up)

Publishers Weekly July 31, 1995

As this unusually perceptive, streetwise novel opens, Gayle, 14, already a mother to seven-month-old Jose, is once again pregnant. Brooking no opposition, Mama marches Gayle to a clinic for an abortion, then sends her and Jose to Columbus, Ga., to live with Mama's semi-estranged brother, minister Luther Gates, and his family. Much to Gayle's surprise, the Gateses live in an antebellum mansion on a sizeable estate. And to her dismay, Luther's wife, "Miss Auntie," assigns her to help care for Great, her bedridden great-grandmother, along with a host of "holy roller" – especially cousin Cookie, who at 16 still wears kneesocks and hasn't been "busted" by a man, much less kissed. But through learning about family history from astute, acid-tongued Great and Miss Auntie, Gayle, who has always stood defiantly alone, begins to see how she is an integral part of a greater whole. Williams-Garcia (Fast Talk On a Slow Track) perhaps effects a faster metamorphosis in Gayle than is strictly credible, but no matter. The emotions ring true, as does the protrait of contemporary black culture. Ages 12-up.