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Carmen Browne #1
True Friends
Carmen Browne is a ten-year-old African-American girl beginning fifth grade. With her family moving to a new city, Carmen is anguished to give up her friends and comfortable home. As her family adapts to a new location, Carmen learns that finding new friends and fitting in is not easy. Part of her doesn't even want to try. Family issues become complicated when Carmen's brother learns he is adopted. Dealing with unpopularity, fitting in, and cultural differences are Carmen's issues in the first book of the Carmen Browne series.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Perry Moore
134 books173 followersSTEPHANIE PERRY MOORE is the author of many Young Adult Christian fiction titles, including the Payton Skky series, the Laurel Shadrach series, the Perry Skky Jr. series, the Faith Thomas Novelzine series, the Carmen Browne series, and the Beta Gamma Pi series. She is also the co-editor for the impactful BibleZine, REAL. Mrs. Moore speaks with young people across the country, showing them how they can live life fully and do it God's way. Stephanie currently lives in the greater Atlanta area with her husband, Derrick, a former NFL player and author, and their three children. Visit her website at www.stephanieperrymoore.com.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 8, 2020
As a young Christian black girl, I felt very isolated. There weren’t many other kids my age at my church and the kids I met and hung out with (mostly non-POC) didn’t go to church or weren’t very involved. As a pastor’s daughter, I didn’t really have a choice in whether to be involved or not. Then, I delved into trying to read Christian fiction. This brought even more problems for me. All the characters in those stories were white, and so these characters had very different lives to me. We might have both lived in the suburbs at the time, but there is a difference between living in the suburbs as one of the only black families and living in a place full of people who look like you. Not even mentioning the fact that some of these books tried to push harmful narratives that my family definitely did not agree with. I’d say the first time I really saw how close-minded/hateful people in my religion could be was through some of these books.
Then, I found the Carmen Brown series and fell in love with it. Carmen reminded me of myself in every single way. The 10-year-old black girl who lives in the suburbs and deals with the struggles of that, check. A young girl who feels connected with her religion and whose parents are very involved in church, check. Sister 2 years younger than her, check. Struggles to process a lot of different stressors at once, check. I felt like I was reading my twin in book form. I immediately flew through the series and was going to read the Payton Skky series until my mom realized the subject matter may be a little too mature for me at 10. (I ended up reading it at 18 and enjoyed it, here are my reviews of Book 1 and Book 2). I already loved reading beforehand, but I related to these books more than I had related to any series before.
When I heard that we were doing a tour for diverse MG and YA books, I knew I had to pick this book. I literally could remember full storylines of this series that I hadn’t read in years, it spoke to me so much. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my original copies of these books, so I bought it on Kindle and reread the first book. Reading this book at 20 was a different experience. I found that the plot moved a lot faster than I originally thought it did, which felt almost too quick for my adult brain. But as a kid, it moved quickly enough to really engage me so I was never bored. I also noticed something that made my jaw drop.
This book includes conversations between characters about the importance of affirmative action. I had always been under the assumption that I never knew about affirmative action until I was applying for college and people in the news were talking about it. But now I realized that I’d thought for years that it was something that needed to be protected, and that was the stance I instantly took when the lawsuits started popping up in the news. Now I realize that this book taught me about something so important before I even knew it was a thing. That’s just the one lesson I learned from this book, this entire series is full of important tidbits like this one. Just another reason to love this series.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an upper Elementary/ early Middle-Grade series to read.
Then, I found the Carmen Brown series and fell in love with it. Carmen reminded me of myself in every single way. The 10-year-old black girl who lives in the suburbs and deals with the struggles of that, check. A young girl who feels connected with her religion and whose parents are very involved in church, check. Sister 2 years younger than her, check. Struggles to process a lot of different stressors at once, check. I felt like I was reading my twin in book form. I immediately flew through the series and was going to read the Payton Skky series until my mom realized the subject matter may be a little too mature for me at 10. (I ended up reading it at 18 and enjoyed it, here are my reviews of Book 1 and Book 2). I already loved reading beforehand, but I related to these books more than I had related to any series before.
When I heard that we were doing a tour for diverse MG and YA books, I knew I had to pick this book. I literally could remember full storylines of this series that I hadn’t read in years, it spoke to me so much. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my original copies of these books, so I bought it on Kindle and reread the first book. Reading this book at 20 was a different experience. I found that the plot moved a lot faster than I originally thought it did, which felt almost too quick for my adult brain. But as a kid, it moved quickly enough to really engage me so I was never bored. I also noticed something that made my jaw drop.
This book includes conversations between characters about the importance of affirmative action. I had always been under the assumption that I never knew about affirmative action until I was applying for college and people in the news were talking about it. But now I realized that I’d thought for years that it was something that needed to be protected, and that was the stance I instantly took when the lawsuits started popping up in the news. Now I realize that this book taught me about something so important before I even knew it was a thing. That’s just the one lesson I learned from this book, this entire series is full of important tidbits like this one. Just another reason to love this series.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an upper Elementary/ early Middle-Grade series to read.
September 30, 2024
Good!
There are some uncomfortable, realistic conversations.
Getting called “white” (derogatory) for being smart.
“Because of Affirmative Action, things are changing for the better!” “Sign this petition to keep Affirmative Action!” Having to write an essay on Affirmative Action.
“Without Affirmative Action, your mother and I would never have met, and you never would have been born. Your mom and I got into Duke University because of their special admissions program.”
“For every black person who doesn’t need affirmative Action, there are 99 that do.”
“What them black leaders did helped us a lot, but babygirl, it still ain’t given us no equal playing field. Now Affirmative Action won’t even the playing field either, but it will give us minorities a few points on the scoreboard. To win in this here crazy world, our people need all the help they can get. Chile’, don’t think we don’t need them laws!”
Reading the essay conclusions for Affirmative Action.
“Affirmative Action is desperately needed!”
“There are prejudices everywhere!”
Her adopted brother.
“She said white girls and black girls shouldn’t be friends.”
Etc.
There are some uncomfortable, realistic conversations.
Getting called “white” (derogatory) for being smart.
“Because of Affirmative Action, things are changing for the better!” “Sign this petition to keep Affirmative Action!” Having to write an essay on Affirmative Action.
“Without Affirmative Action, your mother and I would never have met, and you never would have been born. Your mom and I got into Duke University because of their special admissions program.”
“For every black person who doesn’t need affirmative Action, there are 99 that do.”
“What them black leaders did helped us a lot, but babygirl, it still ain’t given us no equal playing field. Now Affirmative Action won’t even the playing field either, but it will give us minorities a few points on the scoreboard. To win in this here crazy world, our people need all the help they can get. Chile’, don’t think we don’t need them laws!”
Reading the essay conclusions for Affirmative Action.
“Affirmative Action is desperately needed!”
“There are prejudices everywhere!”
Her adopted brother.
“She said white girls and black girls shouldn’t be friends.”
Etc.
September 15, 2008
True Friends
Carmen Brown is about to enter the fifth grade when the family learns that dad's job was relocating. To say that she was sad would be putting it lightly. Lonely and feeling like an outsider, not only was her old school where her friends were, they were all the same race. Carmen wants to make friends, she just doesn’t know how. Eventually Carmen lets go of her fears and steps away from her comfort zone. Will her new school mates be receptive?
I really enjoyed ‘True Friends’ by Stephanie Perry Moore. I was able to relate to this story because I’ve been the new girl in school and it’s not much fun.
Reviewed by: Marshae
Pre-teen Reviewer
4.5 stars
Carmen Brown is about to enter the fifth grade when the family learns that dad's job was relocating. To say that she was sad would be putting it lightly. Lonely and feeling like an outsider, not only was her old school where her friends were, they were all the same race. Carmen wants to make friends, she just doesn’t know how. Eventually Carmen lets go of her fears and steps away from her comfort zone. Will her new school mates be receptive?
I really enjoyed ‘True Friends’ by Stephanie Perry Moore. I was able to relate to this story because I’ve been the new girl in school and it’s not much fun.
Reviewed by: Marshae
Pre-teen Reviewer
4.5 stars
Want to read
February 10, 2009want to read so bad
May 27, 2009
Its great. You can really relate to Carmen.
Read
February 5, 2010I really love this book this book thought me how to be a true friend and who is really your true friends i hope yell like it
July 28, 2011
its great
March 20, 2011
this book was awesome.. in 5th grade. the values in the story still hold true nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews