Distance threatens to tear apart a friendship. That is, of course, if a secret doesn’t ruin it first.
Told in dual perspectives, this provocative and timely stand-alone companion to Paula Chase’s So Done and Dough Boys will resonate with fans of Jason Reynolds, Rebecca Stead, and Renée Watson.
Best friends Rasheeda and Monique are both good girls. For Sheeda, that means keeping her friends close and following her deeply religious, Bible-quoting aunt’s every rule. For Mo, that means not making waves in the prestigious and mostly White ballet intensive she’s been accepted to. But what happens when Sheeda catches the eye of Mo’s older brother, and the invisible racial barriers to success as a ballerina turn out to be not so invisible?
Paula Chase continues to explore the lives of African American middle school characters from the Cove, a low-income housing project, in this stand-alone companion to So Done and Dough Boys. Both universal and specific, Turning Point is rich with thematic threads such as racism, body image, poverty, creativity, religion, Me Too, friendship, and family running through it. A rewarding and thought-provoking read for the older middle grade audience.
I really need the world to stop sleeping on Paula Chase and her fantastic and solidly middle grade novels (which librarians are constantly begging for).
When I read Paula Chase books I think about the misadventures of me and my cousins. I think about my aunts and my uncles. I think about the fact that no matter how much we butt heads, not matter how crazy they drive me, this is what is means to be friends, this is what it means to be family. No unnecessary plot points, no strangely absent adults. We have kids acting their age, and doing their best.
Turning Point follows best friend Sheeda and Mo. Mo is at a prestigious summer ballet program. She's one of only two black girls, with not only skin color, but a build that doesn't match those of the other girls. Mo struggles to balance getting criticism, feeling good enough, the accidental "fear" (see those quotes) she feels like she instills in her roommates, being an unabashed black girl, and the changes she's gone through when she finally arrives back home.
Sheeda struggles to find the balance between her church life and her growing attraction to a boy. Sheeds like certain parts about church, and doesn't see the harm in talking to a boy. She has no interest in going any further than that (and lets applaud her for setting her boundaries hard!), but it seems like the two can't possibly co-exist.
These girls go through the trials and tribulations that are that grow their understand of what it means to be a young woman, what it means to walk in a space that doesn't appear to be made for you, what it means to change as individuals.
Ahhh, If I had a kid I would sit and stare at them as they read all of Paula Chases's books, crazy excited to talk about it. It's times like this I still wish I worked directly with kids and teens instead of working with the librarians who work with kids and teens.
I'll be buying this for my library for sure!!
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