Allison Whittenberg

Killing the Father of Our Country follows 16 year old Jonah, a bi-racial teen living with his mother, younger brother Solly, and his step-father Nick. Nick is racist and violent, and frequently abuses the family, especially Jonah. But Jonah is tired of putting up with it, so he makes a plan - he's going to kill Nick.

This is a short book, only 170 pages, so a quick read for older teenagers. The language is easy to understand without being childish, and it deals with issues such as gun show more control, racism, child abuse, first love, pedophilia.

This book was engaging, I definitely wanted to keep reading to see what the outcomes were. I was cheering Jonah on, and worrying for him and his loved ones. My only issue was that a couple of the subplots distracted from the main story, almost seeming to be there just to pad out the pages. I wouldn't have minded at all had the book not already been so short. show less

Charmaine lives with her family in 1970s Philadelphia. After her Aunt Karyn was killed by an abusive boyfriend, Charmaine's family took in her son, Tracy John. Now 6 years old, Tracy John is driving Charmaine crazy. All she wants is her own room, to someday be beautiful and for "African Greek god" Demetrius to pay attention to her. It takes the realization that Tracy John still misses his mother for Charmaine to see that family is the most important thing.

Wendy Anderson grew up in the affluent--and white--suburbs of Philadelphia. Hakiam Powell shuffled through foster care. Wendy volunteers at a tutoring center for Philadelphians seeking their GEDs, against her father's wishes. When Hakiam walks in, they do NOT hit it off. Wendy writes him off as yet another slacker who is not committed to actually making something of himself, and Hakiam finds her uptight and pretentious.

In spite of their differences, however, as they get to know each other, show more they discover sides of each other that they hadn't bothered to believe existed before. Objection to their being together is strong, though, coming from both Wendy's father and Hakiam's cousin, with whom he's staying. Can the couple make it despite all of their differences?

I like the concept of this “unlikely love conquers all” story, and I especially looked forward to a contemporary YA romance featuring black characters. Unfortunately, TUTORED did not make much of an impression on me, due to undeveloped characters and average writing.

Wendy and Hakiam were rather flat characters, neither of whom held my attention and garnered my sympathies. They seemed to each have one main conflict that drove them. For Wendy, it was her father, who is racist against his own race; for Hakiam, it is his cousin, a very irresponsible single mother. These conflicts were carried in the most basic manners, with lots of snappy dialogue, but let’s be honest here: how many people are actually defined by one conflict as straightforward (though no less serious, let’s clarify that here) as the ones that are presented in this book?

All of the relationships in this book seemed to exist only on a surface level. Wendy and Hakiam may have squeezed in a handful of memorable lines within their constant dialogue, but the majority of the dialogue told me little except that Allison Whittenberg can write dialogue. I felt little chemistry between the two, little development of their interactions. The climax and resolution unfolded in such an unexciting way that I have my doubts as to whether or not it is worth reading less than 200 pages to get to it.

Indeed, the part of TUTORED that I liked best was Wendy’s relationship with her father. As much as I loathed how judgmental and controlling he was, I could believe that a father like him would exist, one who so completely rejects his own upbringing that he’d speak ill of his own race. I don’t have personal experience with black-on-black prejudice, but Wendy’s relationship with her father was eye-opening to be sure.

Unfortunately, with shortcomings in character development and pacing, it will be hard to promote TUTORED as a good example of POC literature. I appreciate the effort that Allison Whittenberg made, though, to tell the love story of two non-white characters, and hope that others will follow her example in the future. show less

Wendy and Hakiam certainly don't hit it off right away - in fact, they seem to annoy each other. They're preconceived notions about the other play a big part in their attitudes. Wendy sees Hakiam as a lazy hoodlum and Hakiam sees Wendy as a stuck up snob. There's no way for Wendy to know that Hakiam has a lot of responsibility; he has to watch his cousin, Leesa's, premature daughter. And Wendy has a father who lived in the ghetto as a child and has become successful; he doesn't not want to show more associate, nor does he want her to associate, with anyone of a lower social class. Against all odds the two become friends and learn a lot about each other, which helps them both grow as people.

My opinion: As I first started reading this book, I kept thinking "I just KNOW I'm not going to like it!" But I pushed on and about 2/3 of the way through I really started liking it more and more. I really had a hard time grasping why Wendy agreed to have coffee with him that first time, they hadn't exactly been on good terms up to that point. I guess we can assume that she wanted to see if there was more to Hakiam than his rough exterior. And of course there was. It was really easy to see Hakiam grow through the story; his cousin Leesa was very irresponsible, not interested in her tiny premature baby, or really anything for that matter besides having parties. He was expected to take care of that poor baby most of the time and as Wendy taught him more and more about childcare he really took a renewed interest in the little girl's well being. There were a couple of passages in the book that made me chuckle, which was a good surprise. Not to give too much away, but the ending, I'm sure, will disappoint some people. PLEASE do not let this dissuade you from reading this book; I actually happen to like books that let the reader come to their own conclusions. It's nice to let your imagination fill in the blanks sometimes!

My rating: 3/5 stars show less