Jumped
By Rita Williams-garcia
(Amistad, Hardcover, 9780060760915, 176pp.)
Publication Date: February 5, 2009
Other Editions of This Title: eBook, (March 2009)
Categories: Girls & Women, Social Issues - Violence
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The wrong angle
Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. The boyed-up basketball girl barely moves. The others, her girls, step aside. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina.
Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right in between us and is like, "Hey." Like she don't see I'm here and all the space around me is mines. I slam my fist into my other hand because she's good as jumped.
Leticia: Why would I get involved in Trina's life when I don't know for sure if I saw what I thought I saw? Who is to say I wasn't seeing it from the wrong angle?
Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia intertwines the lives of three very different teens in this fast-paced, gritty narrative about choices and the impact that even the most seemingly insignificant ones can have. Weaving in and out of the girls' perspectives, readers will find themselves not with one intimate portrayal but three.
Winner of the PEN/Norma Klein Award, Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of six distinguished novels for young adults: most recently, Jumped; as well as no laughter here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies (a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book), and Fast Talk on a Slow Track (all ALA Best Books for Young Adults); Blue Tights; and Like Sisters on the Homefront. The latter was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and was chosen as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a best book of the year by ALA Booklist, School Library Journal, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, The Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, is on the faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the Writing for Children & Young Adults Program, and has two adult daughters, Michelle and Stephanie.
"Williams-Garcia makes the drama feel not only immediate but suffocatingly tense, as each tick of the clock speeds the three girls toward collision."
-ALA Booklist (starred review)
"Most impressive is how the use of voice allows readers to fully experience the complicated politics of high school; you can sense the thousand mini-dramas percolating within each crowded classroom."
-ALA Booklist (starred review)
"With a realistic look at girl-on-girl violence and gripping characterization, Williams-Garcia masterfully builds tension to the momentous ending."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Williams-Garcia has given her characters strong, individual voices that ring true to teenage speech. The ethical decision will get readers thinking about the larger issues surrounding community, personal responsibility, and the concept of "snitching."
-School Library Journal
"Williams-Garcia deftly creates portraits of each of the girls as the narration moves from one to another, with the triangulation of view resulting in some fascinatingly complex characterization."
-Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"The latest novel from Williams-Garcia offers a piercing snapshot of three girls in an urban high school, their daily struggle to realize their hopes and dreams, and the threat of school violence to shatter them all."
-Horn Book Magazine
"Teens who live the reality of girl fights and getting jumped every day will surely see themselves and their friends in these girls."
-Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
"This nail-biter of a tale, told from the girls' three viewpoints, has great insight into the lives of teenage girls and how they interpret and perpetrate bullying."
-Chicago Tribune
"So well-observed that the characters seem to leap off the page, the novel leaves a strong and lingering impact."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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