Redwood Court | De'Lana R.A. Dameron

In a time when there's so much made, at least by some, of the differences between people, or groups of people, or communities of people, it was refreshing to read a novel that showed a real family, living in a real neighborhood and community, dealing with their real day-to-day issues that made any differences shrink away to nothing. Mika, the girl at the center of this fictional story, is a young Black woman living in Columbia, South Carolina, in a purposely segregated neighborhood, in an extended family that has day-to-day issues that are entirely different from my own, yet I felt a huge affinity for the family and found their story full of grace and dignity and humanity. The story closed that gap. Who among us can't remember the liberation of riding a bike through your neighborhood, or the tricky dynamics of friendship in middle school, or the pain of losing a beloved grandparent who made you feel special? Those are the feelings that surface in this story. I thought it was a charming book. The writer is a poet and the writing shows that. The regional dialect of, in particular, the grandparents is beautifully done. This would be a great audio book. I read a review some time ago, and when I finally got it from the library and saw blurbs from Jacqueline Woodson and Ann Napolitano I figured it was probably pretty darn good. And it was.