After Tupac & D Foster

I loved this book! I really really wanted to be friends with the three main characters. (Even though I'm much older than they are!!!) It's fresh! (I can see why "fresh" was such a hip word at one time.) The book is serious AND funny. Here's my first excerpt ... the narrator is going to visit her brother in prison ... her family is all there waiting at the door: The loudest sound in the world is the soft click of prison gates locking behind you. Maybe it's how final it is--the loud slam of the gate, then the quick, gentle click. Then the scary feeling of it all being forever. So many gates slamming shut. So many locks clicking. One after the other until you're all the way inside. And the only way out is at the hands of a prison guard, who has to press a button. And turn a key. Then press another button, and turn another key. All the while staring at each of you. And you know what he's thinking: Remember this place good, y'all. We got a spot waiting for you. Writing doesn't get any better than that. Here's another excerpt, hopefully it'll give you a real taste of the liveliness of the book: Neeka took a last sip of hot chocolate, set her cup on my dresser, then lay back on my bed, her head wrapped in one of Mama's scarves to keep it from getting messy while she slept. "I get it now," she said. I nodded. "D's cool. She's like from another planet. The Planet of the Free." Neeka sat up on one elbow and looked at me. "I'm gonna go to that planet one day." I shook my head and laughed. "We did, girl! We went tonight!" Neeka held out her hand and I slapped it. And we laughed like we were losing our minds.

This book is about two girls(Neeka and the narrator) who meet another girl named D Foster. All three of them share a common love for sounds by a singer named Tupac. The other common thing that the girls share is an irregular family. The father of the narrator left her and her mom a long time ago, Neeka's gay brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and D? Well, she's been in and out of foster homes for a while. They become great friends, and everything is going pretty well until Tupac goes to jail and gets shot. He doesn't die, but the girls feel that a certain part of their own selves has died. He gets shot more and more, and continues to survive, until something happens that is much more drastic to the girls. D's mother wants her back. None of them want D to leave, but D herself wants to try life with her mom. So, she goes with her mom and doesn't come back for awhile. While D is gone, Neeka's brother is let out of jail, so they have a coming back party for him. Suddenly, D shows up with her mom. She says that they will be leaving. They all say their goodbyes, and D leaves. One day, they hear that Tupac got shot again. On the same day, D calls. She doesn't think that Tupac can live any longer. She gives the girls her phone number, and later they hear that Tupac finally died. They try to call D, but her phone just rings and rings. This book is a book about friendship, about being different, and about survival. For anyone who enjoys a good book, this is a must read.

"Everyone's got a purpose and it's just that they gotta figure out what it is and then go have it." That's what D says anyway. D Foster is the girl who shows up on their block one day at the end of summer. She says she got off the bus in Queens because she liked the way the trees looked. That's the type of girl she is. She's also a roamer, roaming all over the place. Neeka and the unnamed narrator learn very quickly that D has something they don't have, something they're jealous for --- freedom. The narrator and her single mother are trying to make ends meet. Her best friend Neeka grew up in a large churchy family with a set of issues all their own. Both of them come from a world where mothers are everything and fathers live in the distant background. But even though their families have rules and curfews, they have parents who seem to care, which is something D would trade all the roaming in the world for. When D first shows up, rapper Tupac Shakur hasn't been shot yet. To these three 12-year-old girls, he's an icon. He sings about the things they're living. They see him and listen to his lyrics, and it's like they're looking at themselves in the words. His art is real. He knows them and their lives and has something to say that means something, and he's supposed to be "for always." Like the best of friends are. Even when the bullets come. Bullets are a certain kind of bad, but there are other things that hurt just as much, only in other ways. Like how D hasn't seen her real mother in a long time and has to live with her foster mom Flo until who knows when. Or how Neeka's oldest brother Tash is doing time in jail for something stupid. Or how the girls don't know much at all about D besides what she tells them. Which is all you can really know about a friend, isn't it? If they never tell you, how are you supposed to know? With how much time the girls spend together, you'd think they'd know all there is to know about each other --- family and friends, passions and fears, their history. But everyone has their secrets. Even D. When it comes down to it, Jacqueline Woodson has packed a lot of tough topics into this airtight little story: throwaway kids, jail visits, homosexuality, Tupac's art, fatherlessness, and the hope some kids cling to that they might one day play professional sports. With so many big issues in the mix, it's amazing how smooth the story flows. It's no wonder that her books have earned so much praise --- Newbery Honor Medal, Caldecott Honor, ALA Best Book, National Book Award Finalist, Coretta Scott King Award and the L.A. Times Book Prize, among others. As Tupac's lyrics did (and still do), Woodson's characters stand there, so familiar, and catch something in the hearts of her readers. Her writing aims high and hits deep. AFTER TUPAC & D FOSTER is another solid performance by a proven name in young adult literature. You won't want to miss it. --- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Woodson's engrossing story contains a lot of big issues, but the main theme is about friendship, and how unexpected changes come into our lives as we are touched by others. AFTER TUPAC & D FOSTER is a tension-filled story of how two twelve-year-old girls meet an outsider and become friends with her. "D" is a foster child, and has adopted "Foster" as her last name. Abandoned by her mother, D Foster is searching for something that is missing in her life...perhaps a sense of belonging and permanence. The other two girls begin to explore the city with her, all of them searching for their "Big Purpose" in life. All the girls have their own set of family issues, and their own approach to solving these problems. All three girls are great fans of the rapper, Tupac Shakur, and are dismayed when he is shot. They examine the meaning of his rap lyrics as they apply to their lives as African-Americans living in Queens, New York, and find that they have much in common with his ideas. When D's birth mother shows up to reclaim her daughter and take her out of the lives of the other two girls, you can't help but hope that her life will be better this time -- while fearing that it will be a rerun of her past history. Racism, homosexuality, and incarceration are touched upon in this slice-of-life story. Every teen can find something to relate to in this emotional story of how teens cope with life. There isn't a great deal of suspense, but Ms. Woodson's writing style is absorbing, and makes you wish the story was longer. It does give you cause to reflect on how your own friends and acquaintances have changed your life. Reviewed by: Grandma Bev

"Everyone's got a purpose and it's just that they gotta figure out what it is and then go have it." That's what D says anyway. D Foster is the girl who shows up on their block one day at the end of summer. She says she got off the bus in Queens because she liked the way the trees looked. That's the type of girl she is. She's also a roamer, roaming all over the place. Neeka and the unnamed narrator learn very quickly that D has something they don't have, something they're jealous for --- freedom. The narrator and her single mother are trying to make ends meet. Her best friend Neeka grew up in a large churchy family with a set of issues all their own. Both of them come from a world where mothers are everything and fathers live in the distant background. But even though their families have rules and curfews, they have parents who seem to care, which is something D would trade all the roaming in the world for. When D first shows up, rapper Tupac Shakur hasn't been shot yet. To these three 12-year-old girls, he's an icon. He sings about the things they're living. They see him and listen to his lyrics, and it's like they're looking at themselves in the words. His art is real. He knows them and their lives and has something to say that means something, and he's supposed to be "for always." Like the best of friends are. Even when the bullets come. Bullets are a certain kind of bad, but there are other things that hurt just as much, only in other ways. Like how D hasn't seen her real mother in a long time and has to live with her foster mom Flo until who knows when. Or how Neeka's oldest brother Tash is doing time in jail for something stupid. Or how the girls don't know much at all about D besides what she tells them. Which is all you can really know about a friend, isn't it? If they never tell you, how are you supposed to know? With how much time the girls spend together, you'd think they'd know all there is to know about each other --- family and friends, passions and fears, their history. But everyone has their secrets. Even D. When it comes down to it, Jacqueline Woodson has packed a lot of tough topics into this airtight little story: throwaway kids, jail visits, homosexuality, Tupac's art, fatherlessness, and the hope some kids cling to that they might one day play professional sports. With so many big issues in the mix, it's amazing how smooth the story flows. It's no wonder that her books have earned so much praise --- Newbery Honor Medal, Caldecott Honor, ALA Best Book, National Book Award Finalist, Coretta Scott King Award and the L.A. Times Book Prize, among others. As Tupac's lyrics did (and still do), Woodson's characters stand there, so familiar, and catch something in the hearts of her readers. Her writing aims high and hits deep. AFTER TUPAC & D FOSTER is another solid performance by a proven name in young adult literature. You won't want to miss it. --- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens © Copyright 1997-2008, Teenreads.com. All ri