Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Abstract

Reviewed by: Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert Deborah Stevenson, Editor Colbert, Brandy Finding Yvonne. Little, 2018 [288p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-316-34905-5 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-316-34906-2 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 10 up Life seems pretty smooth for Yvonne, a skilled violinist who’s dating kind and talented Warren, her chef father’s sous-chef. Then she turns eighteen and starts to question it all: she doesn’t feel the love of playing music she used to and can’t imagine going to a conservatory, and Warren bails on her birthday, the day she feels most vulnerable about her absent mother, who left when she was young. She finds new sparks with Omar, a talented street musician, and starts to dabble in baking, using her mother’s old recipes, but she can’t completely let go of Warren—or figure out what she wants to do. Colbert, author of Little & Lion (BCCB 9/17), again credibly constructs a young Black woman negotiating complicated family dynamics; Yvonne’s father is a benign but distant, highly skilled but also often stoned presence, and her mother’s absence gnaws at her. Her struggle with self-identification in the face of her missing mother and missing calling is compelling, and readers who are beginning to question their assumed paths will relate to her dilemma. Yvonne is also refreshingly mature in her sexuality, even if it does result in unintended consequences; she takes intimacy seriously, but she doesn’t see either man as the love of her life. On the line between young adult and new adult, she’s a compelling protagonist, and she’ll speak to readers thrown by the lack of certainty in their own futures. Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois