For one thing, it might make the most popular white girl in her class, Brandy, want to be best friends with her. When a pair of African-American storytellers come to Mary Eloise's class, the first thing she notices is how dark their skin is. Then she starts listening to the stories they tell. Zambia thinks life would be better if she lived with Snake, her dad, and her two stepsisters, who mightily resemble the stepsisters in Cinderella, though Zambia seems blind to this fact. It makes her mad that all the adults she knows have only negative things about Snake and her step-family.
Snake owns a nightclub where Zambia is dying to hang out.
When he opens a second nightclub right in Zambia's neighborhood, she hopes Snake will ask her to come work for him. Things get serious fast when Snake's club changes the neighborhood into a place where people have to lock their doors at night and old folks are beaten and robbed for drug money. When one of Zambia's stepsisters is murdered, it's impossible for Zambia to ignore reality any longer. USA Copyright 2000 by dowellMedia . All rights reserved.