15 year old Dess is being moved from a group home to a foster home. Her mom is in jail and her terrifying father is looking at a long sentence as well. The new placement will allow Dess to live with her baby brother again after a long separation.
Tanita Davis uses this book to help the reader move past stereotypes. As Dess learns to look beyond the surface she realizes that color and race do not define people. She learns that her actions do define her.
I love that Dess is a chameleon, changing herself to match her setting. She goes from tough girl in scary eyeliner to ready-for-cheerleading practice in cropped jeans. Her jaded eye looks over each crowd and she changes herself to suit her needs. Her new foster sister Hope is not your typical good girl who helps out the foster kid. She’s got her own preconceptions to get past and she struggles alongside Dess.
I definitely would have liked more of this book. I felt that Dess’s talent for sewing and Grandman Amelie were worthy of more pages and details.
Source: ARC from publisher
Audience – middle school and high school
Rhode Reader 