After Tupac and D Foster [Paperback]

Jacqueline Woodson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 7, 2010 | Age Range: 10 and up

The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend’s lives, the world opens up for them. Suddenly they’re keenly aware of things beyond their block in Queens, things that are happening in the world—like the shooting of Tupac Shakur—and in search of their Big Purpose in life. When—all too soon—D’s mom swoops in to reclaim her, and Tupac dies, they are left with a sense of how quickly things can change and how even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.

A Discussion Guide to After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

“The summer before D Foster’s real mama came and took her away, Tupac wasn’t dead yet.” From this first line in her quiet, powerful novel, Woodson cycles backward through the events that lead to dual tragedies: a friend’s departure and a hero’s death. In a close-knit African American neighborhood in Queens, New York, the unnamed narrator lives across from her best friend, Neeka. Then D Foster wanders onto the block, and the three 11-year-old girls quickly become inseparable. Because readers know from the start where the plot is headed, the characters and the community form the focus here. A subplot about Neeka’s older brother, a gay man serving prison time after being framed for a hate crime, sometimes threatens to overwhelm the girls’ story. But Woodson balances the plotlines with subtle details, authentic language, and rich development. Beautifully capturing the girls’ passage from childhood to adolescence, this is a memorable, affecting novel about the sustaining power of love and friendship and each girl’s developing faith in her own “Big Purpose.” Grades 6-9. --Gillian Engberg --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

...will immediately appeal to teens... the emotions and high-quality writing make it a book well worth recommending. -- School Library Journal, starred review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (January 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142413992
• ISBN-13: 978-0142413999
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacqueline Woodson's awards include 3 Newbery Honors, a Coretta Scott King Award and 3 Coretta Scott King Honors, 2 National Book Awards, a Margaret A. Edwards Award and an ALAN Award -- both for Lifetime Achievement in YA Literature. She is the author of more than 2 dozen books for children and young adults and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Friends . . . For Always April 29, 2008

By Jonathan Stephens

Format:Hardcover

"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 rights reserved. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Girlhood friendship & Tupac in "After Tupac and D Foster" March 9, 2010

By L. Fannon

Format:Paperback

When I read If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson back in spring, I was completely blown away by the beauty and the tragedy of it. It's a simple, lovely novel that has the power to change lives. So really if you haven't read it yet, stop reading this review and go read If you come softly. You won't regret it. After reading it, I wanted to read every Jacqueline Woodson book I could get my hands on, so when I saw After Tupac and D Foster on my library shelf, I grabbed it right away.

Where If you come softly was a story about romantic love, After Tupac and D Foster is the story of three black girls who are best friends, Neeka, D and our narrator. D mysteriously enters their lives the summer before they turn twelve and just as quickly leaves right after they turn 13. Tupac plays an important role in the girls' lives, with the book beginning when Tupac was shot for the first time and ending with his death. D looks up to Tupac and she feels as though he is talking directly to her through his music. They become closer friends through their passion for the musician and it gives the novel the perfect arc.

What I loved best about After Tupac and D Foster was the narrator and her voice. She's very mature, but not unbelievable, and she is just looking for a little bit of beauty in the world. The novel captures an era and a place perfectly. The love that the three girls share is so perfectly described, but it manages to be about bigger things than that. It is a short book, but one that encompasses so many parts of life, from the challenges to the perfect moments. I loved the inclusion of Tupac in this book because it puts it in a precise moment of time, New York in the 90s.... Tupac is a fascinating man and I highly recommend the VH1 documentary about his life. There are so many things that I didn't know about him, but having watched the documentary beforehand really gave me a greater sense of the emotional way that the girls reacted to Tupac and just how important he really was (and is).

But Woodson does not stop at the girls' friendship or their relationship with Tupac. There is so much more in this book and it's amazing how much Woodson captures in 150 pages. One of the most touching scenes is when the narrator and Neeka go visit Neeka's brother Tash in jail. He was wrongfully accused of assaulting an old friend, but really it was a crime against Tash, in which he was beaten as well. Tash, a gay man, must avoid being beaten or worse in prison and he has a conversation with his mother that will absolutely break your heart.

And that is exactly what Woodson does for her readers. You so perfectly step into this world, onto this street and you are completely with the three girls that it does not feel like you are reading a story, it's more real than that. There are many other passages that I want to quote for you, but I think I'll let you discover them for yourself. Jacqueline Woodson has done it again and I plan on reading everything she has ever written, because if all her books are only half as good as If you come softly and After Tupac and D Foster then they will all be excellent. Read more ›

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too May 7, 2008

By TeensReadToo

Format:Hardcover

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