(1) YA Big changes are happening in Caprice's life. After an exciting, eventful summer spent at a wealthy private boarding school's leadership program, Caprice is offered a full scholarship to attend the following fall as an eighth grader. She knows this is an amazing opportunity and a chance for a fresh start, though she is unsure about leaving her friends and family in Newark behind. Unfortunately, there is unspoken trauma in Caprice's past. While living at her grandmother's home when she was much younger, Caprice was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her uncle, and she and her mother were eventually put out of the house and estranged from the family. While she has never spoken of the abuse, memories and feelings are now coming to the surface--especially as her grandmother is ill and the possibility of a reunion is imminent. Booth (Tyrell, rev. 1/07; Kinda like Brothers, rev. 11/14) expertly maneuvers through the sensitive subject matter honestly without being explicit. She also shows Caprice dealing with the usual growing pains of adolescence (including criticism from her friends about her appearance and seeming non-interest in boys). At once heartbreaking and triumphant, this book provides education, encouragement, and acknowledgment that healing is possible even when terrible things happen to us.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) 4-6 Jarrett's mom takes in foster children. The latest arrival, toddler Treasure, comes with a surprise: her older brother, Kevon, will be sharing Jarrett's room. Relations between the boys are tense from the start, so Jarrett concocts an ill-advised plan to get Kevon's estranged father to take Kevon home. The myriad subplots threaten to overwhelm the narrative, but Jarrett's credible voice carries the day.

Reviewer: Sam Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2014

(2) YA Now that his father is out of prison, Tyrell (from Tyrell) has a whole new set of problems. He's drawn into his friends' drug-dealing and finds his new romance complicated by an old girlfriend. It's a simultaneously busy and torpid story, reflective of Tyrell's day-to-day life in the Bronxwood projects, kept in line by Booth's uncompromising adherence to Tyrell's point of view.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2011

(2) YA Kendra, fourteen, lives with her strict but loving grandmother. Hot guy Nashawn has Kendra doing things that shame as well as excite her. Does Nashawn love her? Does her recently returned mother? Kendra's present-tense narration is intelligent and honest, grounded by her basic common sense. Her parents, themselves teens when she was born, are especially believable as well-intentioned but flawed.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008

(1) YA Fifteen-year-old Tyrell has a lot on his plate: his father is in jail and his family is parked in a sordid motel. Booth grounds her story in Tyrell's tough-talking but vulnerable voice. Despite the grim setting evoked by the sensory prose, this isn't a story of violence and drugs; rather, it concerns the more intimate deprivations (and moments of connection) of living poor.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007