"I want to feel like that. Like I am connected to something, like there’s a history keeping me moving, living. Like the journey I am on has many footprints, many stories coming with me."
Short summary:
New York is a foreign place to a girl like Amara, who has spent all her life in Oregon. Her mother despises New York, although that is where she met Amara’s dad. All Amara wants for her birthday is to finally meet her dad’s side of the family, people who she has only heard as sounds on a telephone. Desperately trying to convince her mother to let her go, little does she know that her father doesn’t speak to her grandfather Earl, a result of a past conflict. After realising it is her father who she has to convince, her teacher sets an assignment for her to find about her family’s past and heritage, and she thinks that it is the perfect excuse to tell her dad. Thrilled that she would go to New York, Amara is only excited. She wants to visit places from the Apollo, to Langston Hughes’s but neglects the fact that New York may not always be the magical place she dreams about. On one hand, she has a great time meeting everyone however the people make her claustrophobic and her dad doesn’t speak to her grandpa. Then one day, when she is about to have an amazing father-daughter weekend her mum rings to let them know she’s in labour! That was the best birthday surprise Amara could have wished for; connecting with her family and having a sister!
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Recommendation:
A thrilling book for all ages which talks about feeling alone and not being able to connect. A beautiful story about family, history and culture which leads us right through Amara’s heart.
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About the author:
Renee Watson is most known for her bestselling book "Piecing Me Together", but she has also written "Love is a Revolution" and "Watch us Rise".