This Side of Home [Paperback]

From Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award winnerRen?e Watson comes a captivating and poignant coming-of-age urban novel about sisters, friends, and what it means to embrace change.

Maya Younger and her identical twin sister, Nikki, have always agreed on the important things. Friends. Boys. School. They even plan to attend the same historically African American college.
But nothing can always remain the same.

As their Portland neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to up-and-coming, Maya feels her connection to Nikki and their community slipping away. Nikki spends more time at trendy coffee shops than backyard barbecues, and their new high school principal is more committed to erasing the neighborhoods ghetto reputation than honoring its history. Home doesnt feel like home anymore. As Maya struggles to hold on to her black heritage, she begins to wonder with whom--or where--she belongs. Does growing up have to mean growing apart?

REN?E WATSONis the Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning author of the novelsPiecing Me Together,This Side of Home,What Momma Left Me,Betty Before X, co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz, and two picture books:Harlem's Little BlackbirdandA Place Where Hurricanes Happen. Ren?e is the founder of I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts. She lives in New York City.
www.reneewatson.net
@harlemportland (Instagram)

Writing with the artfulness and insights of African American teen-lit pioneers Rita Williams-Garcia, Angela Johnson, and Jacqueline Woodson, Watson shows Maya exploring concerns rarely made this accessible . . . essential for all collections. starred review,Booklist

Watson paints a thoughtful, powerful picture of the complications of contemporary African- American experience, especially when it rubs up against the hipster middlló>