National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming; The Year We Learned to Fly) uses personal experience to honor her childhood in Remember Us, a poignant work of middle-grade historical fiction about how a little-known event shapes one girl's transition to young woman.
It is the summer before seventh grade in the mid-1970s, and while 12-year-old Sage dreams of being the first woman to play in the NBA, her Brooklyn neighborhood burns. New York City is experiencing a rash of fires, both by accident and by arson, and many homes have been destroyed, including that of Sage's best friend, Freddy. Together, Sage and Freddy spend their days shooting hoops, trading stats about Knicks players, and enjoying their last summer before they become teens. As the days shorten, Sage faces new, sometimes upsetting challenges: her identity is attacked, even as she feels the first stirrings of attraction; an adjacent yet serious loss unnerves her and distresses the neighborhood.
Woodson expertly frames Sage's feelings about this awkward life transition through text that is gentle yet lands with force and aching accuracy: "That year, the strangest things hollowed my throat and brought the sting of tears to my eyes." Sage's lyrical, accessible first-person narration features a history lesson hidden within the dynamic experience of Woodson's rounded characters. Fans of Woodson should appreciate this novel, which builds and expands upon some of the autobiographical aspects of Brown Girl Dreaming. --Shannan L. Hicks, freelance writer and librarian