Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Book of the Week: After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson


I loved this short, compelling book by one of my favorite YA authors, Jacqueline Woodson. After Tupac and D Foster is the story of a girl and her friend, Neeka, who are growing up in Queens, New York in the 1990's and are big fans of Tupac Shakur. The girls see on TV the troubles he goes through with arrests and being shot at multiple times. They follow the tragic events in his life and it sadly reflects the reality they live in, with Tupac and Neeka's brother being in jail at the same time. The girls relate to the messages in his music that's a mixture of "gangsta'' rap ( '' I get Around'') to conscious rap about teen pregnancy ( ''Brenda's Got a Baby'').


Around that time, a new girl, D Foster, moves into the neighborhood and is unlike any other girl the narrator and Neeka have met. She has long hair, a confident attitude, and most importantly, can roam around New York all day without any supervision. The girls become fast friends and D shows them all around New York. But while Neeka thinks D is lucky not to have any parents to answer to, the narrator learns that D's roaming around isn't as fun as it seems. While the girls become close, what happens to D and ultimately Tupac's death, changes their lives forever.


Teens can find this book at the library in the YA Fiction section under FIC WOODSON. If we don't have it, someone ( especially me), would be happy to order it from another library!


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