Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree

Tracy Ellison was presumably a diva in the making from the day she was born in 1971 to Dave and Patti Ellison. Tracy is the hazel eyed, honey-brown skinned beautiful young lady who headlines in the novel Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree. Tracy's story takes place in the Germantown neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1977 to the end of the 1980s. It follows Miss Tracy from elementary school all the way through her completion of high school and she is portrayed as one determined queen.

I first read this book when I was in high school, a sophomore I believe and I remember greatly enjoying it even though Tracy was one fast moving young lady when it came to exploring her sexuality and sensuality. I enjoyed reading this book then for one of the same reasons I enjoyed reading it again this year, because I am not like Tracy yet I am like her in the sense that she represents a strong willed young woman.

Although she is a fictional character, she is an accurate representation of many young black women in the 1970s and 1980s and even now. While reading this novel, sometimes I forgot what the time period was because the issues and other actions of the story still happen in today's modern society. There are still people who are materialistic and superficial like Tracy, marriages still take effort like Tracy's parents, some children still become sexually active too soon like Tracy and some of her friends and the young men they were attracted to, and people still do things for selfish reasons like several characters in the novel. Omar Tyree did a really great job with his portrayal of Tracy's life exploration through high school and her character growth can really be seen as inspiration.

Stay Flyy,

The Black Bibliophage

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

Is it worth feeling like an outsider to gain opportunities? Jade Butler is a young black woman in high school. She is not skinny or in shape, instead she has curves a creative soul that loves collaging. In her story Piecing Me Together, Jade hopes to someday venture off into a world greater than her own run down neighborhood in Portland, Oregon and she believes she can do so by learning a another language, Spanish.

I read this book April of this year and I wanted to revisit it. Throughout this cleverly titled novel the author Renée Watson depicts just how much the main character Jade and the supporting characters are much like Jade's favorite hobby collaging. Watson conveys through her words that at some point in our lives or throughout our entire lives, we are piecing ourselves together. Learning what makes who we are, what bothers us, and what we should do with our lives to accomplish any dreams we have.

This novel reminded me that teens need adults they can relate to especially in school and that even those that we think we can relate to and share the same cultural background with can be so much different than us depending on the environment they were raised in. I say that because in Jade's story, her family is poor and her white school guidance counselor doesn't truly understand what it is like for Jade to attend a mostly white private school where the families are predominantly wealthy. This guidance counselor is also the one who thinks Jade is the perfect prospect for a community program called Woman to Woman: A Mentorship Program for African American Girls, when Jade's actual dream is to be nominated for the schools study abroad program so that she can travel to a Spanish speaking country. Jade decides to participate in Woman to Woman and she is assigned a mentor, Maxine, who is not the best mentor in the beginning because she stands her up at the very first mentor/mentee meeting. Jade is weary about her mentor because she doesn't seem to be paying attention to her since she has her own life issues and is piecing herself together as well. It takes a while for Jade to accept Maxine, especially when she finds out that unlike herself, Maxine comes from a wealthy black family and has had a lot given to her. How could she relate to any of Jade's poor black girl struggles?

I thought it was good for Jade to have a mentor and I liked the relationship she and Maxine built and how it still created new opportunities for Jade even when she felt her dream was deferred. And I almost applauded when Jade confronted her Spanish teacher and asked him why she wasn't nominated for the study abroad program. His explanation was logical and it helped Jade come to peace with things she could not control. There are so many more details to this novel but these stuck out to me the most. This is a good book for young women to read and discuss, it made me want to start my own mentor program and share my life collage so far.

The pieces I am,

The Black Bibliophage

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

This book, this book right here, The Hate U Give, is real. It is also one of those books that I wanted to read before I ever laid eyes on its cinematic version. Once I did start reading it, I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. It jumped right into action from the start.

The way Angie Thomas wrote this book at times made me feel like I was the main character, Starr Carter. I felt her black teen in America pain. At other times, I wanted to be there with Starr, especially so she wouldn't feel so alone at her mostly white prep school. I wanted to fight the war against American inequalities with her and I wanted to help and comfort her.

I really think this should be an assigned reading or highly encouraged option for high school students to read and analyze. It has so much to offer, it can break barriers if given the opportunity. It tackles racism, encourages community, and provides an eye opener to the struggles, faults, and dreams of Americans who are black.

Anyone who challenges this book can have a talk with me because it simply implies they do not understand or do not want to understand.

The last thing I will comment on is the movie version. I thought it was ok. It just seemed to change or was missing important details that the book laid out and I don't appreciate the changes made to Starr's older brother Seven. In the book he is her half brother on her father's side while in the movie they share both parents. That change in a detail that may seem minor, is actually very important to the epic plot line of the book which I love over the movie any day.

THUG LIFE,

The Black Bibliophage