Serena Says
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning author Tanita S. Davis delivers a heartwarming and humorous middle grade tale about a young Black girl who finds her own voice through vlogging and learns to speak out. Perfect for fans for Sharon M. Draper and Lisa Greenwald.
JC shines like a 4th of July sparkler. She has the best ideas, the biggest, funniest laugh, and the party starts when she arrives. Serena St. John is proud to be known as her best friend.
Everything changes when JC returns from the hospital with a new kidney—and a new best friend. Out of the spotlight of JC’s friendship, suddenly things aren’t quite so sparkly in Serena’s world.
Lonely Serena works on perfecting her vlogs, hoping to earn a shot at becoming a classroom reporter. If she can be smart and funny on video, why can’t she manage that in real life? If only she could always pause, edit, or delete conversations. It would be so much easier to say the right thing at the right time . . . instead of not saying what she should, or, even worse, blurting out a secret that wasn’t hers to share.
Life doesn’t have a pause button—but as Serena discovers her voice through vlogging, she learns that she’s not just there to reflect JC’s light—she’s fully capable of shining on her own.
Best Friend Drama: When Serena’s best friend JC gets a new kidney and a new bestie, Serena’s world is turned upside down. Can their friendship survive?Finding Your Voice: Follow Serena’s journey as she starts a vlog, trying to figure out how to be as smart and funny in real life as she is on camera.Navigating Middle School: From classroom reporters to friendship fallouts, this story captures the awkward and heartfelt moments of sixth grade.A Heartwarming Story: A funny, touching, and relatable novel about learning to speak up, making mistakes, and discovering you’re bright enough to shine all on your own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Eleven-year-old Serena St. John, who is Black, does not like to stand out, unlike her best friend, outgoing JC, who is Filipina and has always been "funnier and louder and more confident than everyone." But when Serena's untimely cold following JC's kidney transplant puts JC in the path of a replacement best friend Hawaiian Leilani, who is seemingly perfect and has cool older brothers Serena has to figure who she is outside her now-former best friend's shadow. Serena is a smart, intuitive Black girl with relatable fears and insecurities; via school projects and a vlog series that slowly improves as the book progresses, she decides she's ready to step into the spotlight all on her own. Through Serena and her close-knit family and friends, Davis capably touches on matters of chronic illness, mental health, and friendship growing pains in this quiet but impactful slice-of-life novel. Ages 8 12.
