What Momma Left Me
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Rediscover New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor- and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning author Renée Watson's heart-rending debut, about one girl's journey to reconnect to joy.
Serenity is good at keeping secrets, and she's got a whole lifetime's worth of them. Her mother is dead, her father is gone, and starting life over at her grandparents' house is strange. Luckily, certain things seem to hold promise: a new friend who makes her feel connected, and a boy who makes her feel seen. But when her brother starts making poor choices, her friend is keeping her own dangerous secret, and her grandparents put all of their trust in a faith that Serenity isn't sure she understands, it is the power of love that will repair her heart and keep her sure of just who she is.
Renée Watson's stunning writing shines in this powerful and ultimately uplifting novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Watson's first novel (after the picture book A Place Where Hurricanes Happen) explores themes of abuse, faith, and identity in an urban setting through the voice, diary entries, and poems of 13-year-old Serenity Evans. Serenity and her younger brother, Danny, move in with their grandparents in Portland, Ore., after their mother dies and their drug dealer father skips town. "Momma is a song that I can't forget," Serenity thinks. "Her melody comes to mind and I realize that traces of her song are still here." She immediately connects with Maria, who attends her new school and church ("She knows that there are some types of sadness that can't be explained"), but Serenity is not immediately ready to open up about the loss of her mother, and Danny starts running with a dangerous crowd. Serenity's struggles and insights, as she wrestles with her parents' legacy and an uncertain future, are inspiring, authentic, and told in a straightforward yet poetic style. The first-person narration is consistent, and the mystery of the painful circumstances of her mother's death as well as additional tragedies propels the story. Ages 10 14.
