Snapshot: Damien and Junice are not supposed to love each other. Though both are from Harlem, they have different family backgrounds. Junice’s mother gets sent to prison for selling drugs and Junice and her sister Melissa are left with their grandmother, Miss Ruby. Ruby has a criminal history, is going senile, and has been deemed unfit to take care of the two girls. When they are faced with the possibility of being split up in the foster care system, Junice decides to take off to Memphis, Tennessee to live with a distant relative. When Damien’s mother denies Junice and the love that they share, Damien sacrifices his family and education and joins Junice and Melissa on their journey south, pledging his love and commitment.

“Hook”: This book never really hooked me in—early engagement was a real struggle. With that said, the book is short and will be a quick read for advanced readers who are engaged in the story. I suppose the rapping back and forth between Kevin and Damien (reminiscent of Mercutio and Romeo) could hook some readers. The drama lends itself to the stage or a role-play in class which will appeal to aural, visual and kinesthetic learners.

Challenges: This book poses many linguistic and structural challenges, especially for ELLs. The narrative structure and sequence is not intuitive and it is difficult to follow characters and relationships. Students would benefit from a sociogram or a family tree to track characters and relationships. Also, because the drama unfolds through poetry, the amount of figurative language and dialect present would be frustrating for certain learners. This text, if used as a whole-class read (which I’d not be inclined to do), would require lots of guided reading; I suspect there would be a wide range of engagement and proficiency.

Student in mind: I would consider using this book as a companion text to complement a class reading on Romeo and Juliet, drawing on excerpts that have clear parallels (e.g. juxtapose the scene where Romeo slays Tybalt with the scene where Damien fights Sledge). With that, I’d have a hard time recommending this book to my students because I struggled to get through it myself—even with my love of Shakespeare, poetry and rap. If I did recommend this book to a student, it would be to someone like Natisa, whose mother is in prison, as an independent read. She is a fairly adept reader who likes poetry and hip hop and she may become engaged early on if she makes a connection to the strength and resilience of Junice’s character.

Conference notes: Have you ever been in love with someone that your parents didn’t like? Why did they disapprove? How did you feel? How does money limit our choice and freedom in life? What role do prisons play in society? How do people and groups acquire power? Why does Junice lie to Melissa about her mother reading the note at Bedford Hills prison? Why can’t Junice and Melissa stay with Miss Ruby? What is Sledge’s view of women? How do you know? Make an inference about why Sledge reacts this way to Junice and Damien. Do you think Junice will reach her goals in life? Will Junice and Damien get married?

Level: Grades 9-10