Read for Newbery Club in Children's Books group. There I posted:

Ok this is interesting. I just enjoyed the [b:New Kid|39893619|New Kid (New Kid, #1)|Jerry Craft|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534310236l/39893619._SX50_.jpg|57574554] trilogy, the first of which is a 2020 Newbery Medal winner*, and one of the themes of the stories is how out of touch with the concerns of African-American children many adults are. Very well-meaning adults at the private school assumed that they were doing well to recommend 'gritty urban' stories about 'poor black kids in trouble' to their students. Craft called his example text something like "The Gritty Streets of South Uptown" (but much funnier).

Well, I've noticed that there are no shortage of gritty stories in the Newbery lists, including [b:Somewhere in the Darkness|152098|Somewhere in the Darkness|Walter Dean Myers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328868992l/152098._SX50_.jpg|146810] in which our boy is on his way to being a delinquent because he skips school so much, has to navigate past junkies to get outside in the first place, only family is a friend of his mom, and the story is about his father who shows up one day out of the blue, grabs the boy, and splits, leaving a trail of lies behind him.

And then, finally, it ends, with us not learning anything about the mom, or anything about what Jimmy is going to do now that the adventure is over. Is he going to start taking school more seriously? Is Mama Jean going to tell him more of his family history? I can just hear the white teacher telling the almost all white classroom of students "What do you think? Discuss."

I don't feel bad about skipping the author's "Scorpions," a previous Newbery honor book.

(*We will be discussing New Kid when we get caught up to 2020 in this group. I look forward to the reread!) ( )

14yo Jimmy lives a fairly happy life in Harlem with Mama Jean, a family friend. His mother is dead and his father has been in and out of prison. When Crab - his father - shows up out of the blue one day to take Jimmy on a cross-country trip, Jimmy struggles with missing his home and Mama Jean, and trying to reconcile the man in the car with his ideas about what his father would and should be like. Crab has - and still does - make questionable life choices, but can Jimmy be strong enough to give him what he seeks - forgiveness?
This one feels a little dark for a Newbery Honor Book, but it's a good one, nonetheless. Myers does a nice job of making all the characters feel real - Jimmy reads just right for a 14yo, and I love that he's a PoC teen who faces hardships but isn't all-angst-all-the-time. Myers is also good at creating an atmosphere of unease and feeding it without letting it get overbearing. ( )

Crab and his 14 year old boy take a trip across America. Crab's been in jail, his boy, Jimmy, doesn't know him, he's been in New York, living with Mama Jean. A little late for bonding, and as the story progresses, we learn a little about Crab's life and Jimmy's struggle to take this all in.

Crab's sick, real sick, and he gets money any way he can. Jimmy helps, Jimmy's confused, It's real, all the way from Chicago to the conjure man in Arkansas. ( )

Left me feeling like it wasn't complete. ( )

Left me feeling like it wasn't complete. ( )