After Tupac and D Foster (Newbery Honor Book) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The summer before D Foster's real mama came and took her away, Tupac wasn't dead yet..." (more)
Key Phrases: Miss Irene, Big Purpose, Three the Hard Way (more...)

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

Review

...will immediately appeal to teens... the emotions and high-quality writing make it a book well worth recommending. -- School Library Journal, starred review

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Young Adult; First Printing edition (January 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399246541
• ISBN-13: 978-0399246548
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Jonathan Stephens "Jonathan Stephens" (Huntington Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"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

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tough but heartwarming story from an amazing, award-winning author, July 24, 2008

By	Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

"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