The Black Girls Left Standing
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In Juliana Goodman's powerful young adult debut The Black Girls Left Standing, Beau Willet will stop at nothing to clear her sister's name.
Sixteen-year-old Beau Willet has dreams of being an artist and one day leaving the Chicago projects she’s grown up in. But after her older sister, Katia, is killed by an off-duty police officer, Beau knows she has to clear her sister’s name by finding the only witness to the murder; Katia’s no-good boyfriend, Jordan, who has gone missing. If she doesn't find him and tell the world what really happened, Katia's death will be ignored, like the deaths of so many other Black women who are wrongfully killed.
With the help of her friend, Sonnet, Beau sets up a Twitter account to gather anonymous tips. But the more that Beau finds out about her sister's death, the more danger she finds herself in. And with a new relationship developing with her childhood friend, Champion, and the struggle to keep her family together, Beau is soon in way over her head. How much is she willing to risk to clear her sister's name and make sure she's not forgotten?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Black Chicagoan Beau, an aspiring artist, navigates feuding parents, budding romance, police violence, and unresolved grief in Goodman's intense debut. When Beau's older sister, Katia, is accused of breaking and entering, she's killed by a white off-duty police officer. Reeling, as well as seeking closure and justice, Beau enlists her free-spirited friend Sonnet to help her search for the event's only witness: Katia's boyfriend Jordan, a former Onyx Tigers gang member, who went missing after her death. Gathering tips from an anonymous Twitter account lands the teens in increasingly dangerous scenarios, resulting in death threats, a harrowing night in jail, and a deadly shoot-out. As Beau's investigation brings her closer to the truth about Katia's death, she confronts facts about her sister that she never knew while struggling to navigate life without her. The narrative juggles multiple story lines, at points causing confusion and leaving plotlines unexplored and questions unanswered. Nevertheless, Goodman's depiction of the pain, lack of empathy, and presumption of guilt that Black youth often experience due to systemic oppression lands on a necessary, hopeful note. Ages 14–up.
