Christine Kendall

Twelve-year-old Neva is disappointed about her parents traveling Europe as musicians on tour all summer while leaving her and 16-year old brother Clay home with their “old-fashioned” grandparents to watch over them. She’s acutely aware of her changing body and also becoming more aware of social injustices, especially when a girl around her age moves into the neighborhood with her community-organizing father. How will Neva handle these changes, especially now that her best friend seems to be pulling away from her?

This book was interesting, and I think it has an audience, but I’m not exactly sure who that audience is. On the one hand, the book tackles difficult topics like puberty, street harassment, victim blaming, and the school-to-prison pipeline. On the other hand, Neva’s voice comes across as sounding young and her penchant for looking words up in the dictionary results in a lot of vocabulary lessons, as though the young readers need help with understanding the words “trolleys” and “murals,” but are fine with understanding complex social justice causes.

It also felt like the beginning part of the book really went into detail about Neva’s sudden interest in breasts, bras, and lingerie, but at the end it zipped through the grandparents having a change of heart about the children going to a march/protest. The same seemed true with Neva’s character development; she seemed to ping pong from one extreme to another without much actual internal or external causes for those changes.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad read but I think there are stronger titles out there that address these topics a little more deftly.… (meer)

The real story is tougher than the book, but Kendall's novel gives taut and revealing insights into the lives of inner-city African-American families and the few kids that find hope through the innovative and successful Work to Ride program.

Troy is a good kid with a supportive family and friends, but he lives in a hard place and has recently lost his Mom. He's confused and troubled. He gets into trouble and is faced with juvenile detention. The last thing he wants to do is muck out stall's and hang out with horses. Until he tries it. Until he meets the polo pony, Chance.

Turns out, Troy's a natural with horses. He bonds with Chance, but in his new obsession with horses, he almost loses his best friend, Foster. Troy makes mistake after mistake, including lying to everyone who's trying to help. I wanted to shake him and tell him to straighten up, but I stuck with him because he stuck with Chance.

In the Author's Note, Kendall writes that her inspiration for this story came from the Work to Ride Program. I can see why. It's both heartbreaking - the kids in the program have faced horrible violence in their Philadelphia neigborhoods - but the Work to Ride horse program grants them safety and hope. Don't miss the facts at WorktoRide.net, especially Kareem Rosser's story.… (meer)