Today's Featured Book:
Last Summer on State Street
by Toya Wolfe
Genre: Children's Fiction
Published: May 2, 2023
Page Count: 224 pages
Summary:
Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls.
As their beloved neighborhood falls down around them, so too do their friendships and the structures of the four girls’ families. Fe Fe must make the painful decision of whom she can trust and whom she must let go. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer—just before her home was demolished, her life uprooted, and community forever changed—Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.
I'd known Precious forever, Stacia a year, and Tonya for just a minute. We were so different, but everybody loved them some double Dutch. Sometimes we made a tight-knit crew; other days we couldn't get along for nothing.
Wolfe, Toya.. Last Summer on State Street, p. 1.
"He at that age, Fe Fe. Everybody checking for him now. My brother left last year when he turned fifteen." I looked for a sadness, any crack at all in her hard shell, but she just reached for the ropes, motioning for us to start a game.
Wolfe, Toya.. Last Summer on State Street, p. 56.
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I brought Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe along with me to Chicago for our visit with my son and daughter-in-law this week. It will be interesting to talk about this book with my daughter-in-law, Lisa, who was a teen living in Chicago in 1999.
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
How much do online reviews shape what you pick up next? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee-Addicted Writer).
I rely completely on other bloggers to help me decide what book to read next!
Hope you enjoy the book and discussions with your daughter-in-law.
ReplyDeleteIt's fun to have a book you can talk over with someone else, and especially your DIL. I wish mine read for fun. We can't have those chats!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what your daughter-in-law will think of the book. It is such a depressing setting. We had just finished reading The Warmth of Other Suns about Black migration out of the South when I decided to read this book since it is an end of result of that migration to the Chicago area. Whites didn't want to live in neighborhoods with Blacks so the city erected these huge, ugly structures and put too many poor, unemployed or underemployed in one space and the result was catastrophic.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up Double Dutch (and don't even remember ever having it seen in my (German) childhood, only one rope). The book sounds bittersweet.
ReplyDeleteI read reviews for books sometimes to help me choose a book I'm on the fence about.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I'm less focused on reviews; sometimes it's nice to pick up something I haven't heard about, or haven't heard much about, and just give it a shot. I remember recently I did that with a book called Reignclowd Palace, and had a lot of fun, though I still haven't seen many other people talk about it!
ReplyDeleteNice! I do too when it comes to those books I am on the fence about, usually only takes one good review and I am sold! Lol.
ReplyDeleteI thought something was iffy with blogger! I haven't had any new posts from people I follow for 3 days which I found highly unusual! Finding your post here makes me aggravated because it's never done this before. Sigh...
Here's my BBH
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
When I read a review on someone's blog and like the sound of it I will see if my library has a copy.
ReplyDeleteLast Summer on State Street is beautifully written. I don’t read much children’s literature, but I may make an exception. And yes, I rely on book bloggers for my next read - indirectly. Book recommendation from bloggers make up my extensive TBR list.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds like something I would enjoy, not as a pre-teen, but as an adult! Like you, I read according to what is recommended to me. Your blog, darn it, seems to make my TBR grow whenever I read it!
ReplyDelete