Amara's mother objects to the trip, but a school assignment requiring research on family history helps put father and daughter on a plane to New York. Gr 4-6-For Amara's 12th birthday, she longs to travel to Harlem with her father to see where he grew up and meet the family she's spoken with only on the phone. (Sept.) Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission. Watson's Harlem comes alive on the page, lovingly viewed by flawed but lovable characters whose story underscores themes of family, history, and forgiveness. Watson ( Piecing Me Together) composes a quiet, emotive story of finding home in a new place and finding family among new people. And she begins to cherish the relatives that her father, a poet turned Nike executive, left behind, including his own father, a former basketball coach who once held a limited view of masculinity.
New York City is far more intense than small-town Beaverton, Ore., where Amara's from, yet the more of Harlem Amara sees, the more she begins to love the neighborhood for the wealth of African-American history it represents.
But when her humanities teacher assigns a project requiring Amara to delve into her family history, her father agrees to take her to visit his family, including Grandpa Earl, with whom her dad hasn't spoken in 12 years. When "sneaker-head" Amara Baker expresses a wish to visit her father's childhood home in Harlem for her upcoming 12th birthday, her mother, eight months pregnant with a baby sister Amara is less than thrilled about, isn't too keen on the idea. An ALA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults.A Chicago Public Library Best Book, Teen Fiction.A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens.Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Young Adult Finalist.As she explores, asks questions, and learns more and more about Harlem and about her father and his family history, she realizes how, in some ways more than others, she connects with him, her home, and her family. It's crowded, with confusing subways, suffocating sidewalks, and her father is too busy with work to spend time with her and too angry to spend time with Grandpa Earl.
Maybe this will help her understand her family-and herself-in new way.īut New York City is not exactly what Amara thought it would be. She can't wait to finally meet her Grandpa Earl and cousins in person, and to stay in the brownstone where her father grew up. By Grade + Interest - K to 1st By Grade + Interest - 2nd to 3rd By Grade + Interest - 4th to 5thįrom Newbery Honor- and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Renée Watson comes a heartwarming and inspiring middle-grade novel about finding deep roots and exploring the past, the present, and the places that make us who we are.Īll Amara wants for her birthday is to visit her father's family in New York City-Harlem, to be exact.
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