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Bronx native Coe Booth spent her young adulthood working with troubled teens and families before going on to earn an MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her first novel, the evocative Tyrell, combined her gift for writing with her first-hand knowledge of the issues facing inner-city kids. Taking readers on a harrowing journey into a fifteen-year-old boy’s dangerous world, Tyrell was a virtuoso act of novel writing. Booth’s second novel, Kendra, is similarly themed and equally good.
Fourteen-year-old Kendra lives in the projects in Bronxwood with her strict grandmother (her mom, Renee, who got pregnant at fourteen, left Kendra behind to go to college and graduate school and pursue an academic career). Kendra’s sweet but struggling dad, Kenny, lives upstairs with his mother and his half sister, Adonna, who is Kendra’s aunt and also her classmate, best friend, and more socially savvy guide to the challenging worlds of social groups, booty shorts, and boys, who are just starting to notice Kendra, especially earnest Darnell and “too fine for his own self” Nashawn. The more complicated things get for Kendra, the more she longs for her mother’s advice, but she’s too afraid of getting rejected to ask for what she needs. As Kendra wonders if she’ll always come in second in everyone’s life, she starts to learn that even if you can’t get everything you want, you still have to stick up for yourself.
In Kendra, as in Tyrell, Booth masterfully creates both a believable character and a lifelike fictional world. Kendra is less grim than Tyrell in its depiction of life in the projects, but it’s just as vividly evocative of real people and real lives.
Click here to read more about Coe Booth on MySpace.
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The ORIGINAL Cup of Joe |
November 26, 2008after school special??well looks like i better get the noose ready for when tv gets even shittier i can just hang myself out of boredom....jesus and they wonder why kids are so dumb |
The PrΩdigal SΩn |
November 26, 2008Twilight:The chick turns into a vampire at the end of the 4th book. Just saved you $100 in hardcover books and 20+ hours of your worthless life. You're very welcome. |
Deborah |
November 25, 2008nahhh!I think they are going to make this into a after school special. |
John |
November 24, 2008REAL PEOPLE, REAL LIVESwell heres a lesson for all you kiddies... LIFE IS SHIT SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SMILE!! cheers, love john |
TH3 J0K3R [pa-TROLL-in] |
November 13, 2008haha looks like a good bookIF YOUR A HAIRLESS JACKASS CROSSED WITH A CHIMPANZEEE THAT HAS HALF A BRAIN AND A PIGS ASS FOR A HEAD!!! |
BRAINSTORM RECORDS |
November 13, 2008love these kind of books. http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000065344 |
~^~Kr!$+3N~^~ |
November 09, 2008I read Tyrell and I loved it and Kendra sounds just as good if not better!!!! |
Sarah Eliazbeth =] |
November 05, 2008sounds like something i would read. |
Orgasmic AhDumb |
October 09, 2008Molly contradicts herself! (again)read her current review and then read her post on the Buddha book. I can't figure out whether she's made of win or fail, she's sending mixed messages! |
MOLLY. ™ |
October 09, 2008DEFINITELY THINKING...this sounds like not something I would read. But if you want to, go right ahead. |
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