Broken China
Grade 8 Up–China, 14, has learned to be a devoted mother after an episode of "messing around" with her best friend, Trip, resulted in her pregnancy two years earlier. Growing up in the same African-American Houston neighborhood as the characters who peopled Williams's earlier novels, China has never had an easy life, but when her daughter unexpectedly dies, she refuses to rely on any counsel except her own in coping with her heartbreak. Since her mother died years earlier, China has lived with Uncle Simon, who is wheelchair bound. When she insists upon taking a job at a strip club to pay off the baby's funeral bill, he chooses to keep their home life peaceful rather than attempting to control her actions and risk alienating her. Trip stands by her even when she denigrates his mother, refusing to accept her efforts to push him away. Williams is a master of character development and genuinely realized emotional growth. Her plotting almost boils over with big problems, but China is so compelling and engaging in her responses to situations that readers will care more about cheering her along than about the author's operatic predilections. The end of China's story isn't neat and complete, but is nonetheless satisfying. Teens with a taste for books by Connie Porter and Rita Williams-Garcia will want to get to know this teen.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.