For Black Girls Like Me by Mariama J. Lockington

Abstract

Reviewed by: For Black Girls Like Me by Mariama J. Lockington Deborah Stevenson, Editor Lockington, Mariama J. For Black Girls Like Me. Farrar, 2019 [336p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-374-30804-9 $16.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-374-30806-3 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8 Keda’s not excited about the move to New Mexico; the eleven-year-old knows it means another round of fending off questions about her and her family (she’s the Black adopted daughter in an otherwise all-white family), and she’s not sure if she [End Page 25] can rely on her mercurial mom while her musician father’s away on a concert tour. She sends a notebook back and forth to her best friend left behind (Lena, another Black adoptee in a white family), and at night she imagines the “Georgia Belles,” Black women who sing to her about her origins. Soon Keda’s mom begins to spiral out of control, though, and Keda’s torn between convincing herself everything’s fine and wondering what will happen to her family. The multimodal storytelling (there’s Keda’s narration, her free-verse ruminations, her notebook with Lena, their shared Tumblr, and other elements) is visually accessible yet conceptually sophisticated, and Keda’s narration, in a reflective, comma-free style, has a touch of adult perception to it that helps expand the audience range of the story. Keda’s experience, based on Lockington’s own, is keenly and at times plaintively depicted as she longs for a mother who’s not flummoxed by her hair and skin (Keda’s and Lena’s wry shared hashtag is #ashyforlife). Ultimately, though, she longs for a mother, period, as her mother cycles frighteningly through highs and lows and eventually ends up in residential treatment for bipolar disorder. The book is realistic in its absence of external solution there, but readers will cheer Keda as she emerges with a stronger and more loving sense of herself. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois