A young woman has only vague recollections of her mother, Ludie. Her father and aunt are the only family she's ever really known, yet lately, they don't seem to fill the emptiness left by the mother who walked out of her life. One day, Ludie writes unexpectedly; she wants to see her daughter again. The girl takes the chance to be whole by running back to Ludie.---from the publisher
48 pages Ages 10 and up
Keywords: novel in verse, mothers, mother/daughter, diversity, diverse books, family, feelings, emotions, abandonment, African American, African American author, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old, 14 year old, If You Liked Jacqueline Woodson
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With only the most tenuous memories of her mother, the young narrator of these evocative poems thrives with a loving father and her Aunt Lucille. But when her father says she can visit her mother, Ludie, the narrator's longing surfaces the longing of a daughter, who doesn't "step/ on/ cracks./ Ever/ .../ More careful than the others/ with/ mothers/ that they take for granted." Johnson (Toning the Sweep; The Other Side: Shorter Poems) effectively weaves together the fleeting images of a mother-daughter reunion with the everyday events of a teenage girl's life, such as getting in trouble with a friend at school, learning to drive on a beach and the pangs of a secret love (describing her crush on a friend's brother, she admits that she "has loved him/ all her silent heart life"). The visit with her mother allows the heroine to see her resemblance to her mother (for instance, the way "we swing our arms the same/ as we walk into the sunlight"). But the visit also brings the pain of seeing Ludie's photographs of people "who are/ not/ me," and missing what could have been. Conveying a brief but complete narrative, these free verse poems express a young woman's yearning for the presence of a mother and the universal feelings of adolescence. ---from the publisher
