Maya Younger has always been secure in who she is and where she is going. Her plan has always been to attend Spelman University together with her twin sister, Nikki, and their best friend, Essence. But, with the gentrification of their North Portland neighborhood everything begins to change. Nikki starts shopping at the neighborhood’s hip new boutiques and befriends one of the new residents. Housing renovations and increased rents force Essence and her mother to find cheaper housing in seedier parts of Portland. The high school’s new principal eagerly finds ways to combat the school’s rough reputation while courting the new residents as he promotes a watered-down multiculturalism over the school’s traditional Black history and community events. Feelings surrounding race and class at school and in the community escalate into racial slurs and property destruction. A thoughtful response from Maya and her friends begins to heal the community. Watson skillfully explores the complexity of experiences, emotions, and politics that come from the gentrification of a historically African American neighborhood while offering a nuanced portrait of teens struggling with the shifting definitions of self, family, and community identities when facing both openly hostile and more subtle forms of racism. (Ages 12–18)

Does growing up have to mean growing apart? From Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Renée Watson comes a poignant novel about love for home and for ourselves, embracing change, and what it means to grow up.

Identical twins Maya and Nikki have always agreed on the important things-their friends, the right boys, their plans for college and the future. But before senior year begins, too many things are changing. Their neighborhood is starting to get nice-and not really in a way Maya enjoys. With houses turning into trendy coffee shops and restaurants, and neighbors, including their best friend, Essence, being pushed out, Maya's neighborhood is becoming unrecognizable. And when a new-White-family buys the house Essence's mom rented, Nikki suddenly has a new best friend and Maya has a new admirer, someone she's not sure she should like. And then there's their principal, intent on prioritizing the comfort of White students at the expense of the school's largely Black identity. What's worse, no one seems to be as alarmed by these changes as Maya is-not even Nikki. As Maya struggles to hold on, she begins to wonder where-and with whom-she belongs.