Who Am I Without Him?

I especially liked that the audio used different readers. Pretty good collection overall--the nuances are particularly shining--though I found "Jacob's Rules" to be absolutely painful. The teacher's assignment, behavior, and reasoning was 100% inappropriate and inexcusable. The story made it seem like the whole situation was a positive thing, but not only did it enforce heteronormativity as a rule (yeah yeah, I get that this collection is based on that) but traditional gender roles were gospel. And then he purposefully culls the popular and beautiful children to use against the rest of the students AND TELLS THE CLASS JUST SO at the end. That is so wrong in so many ways.

I don't know how this could be better. Short stories about African American teen girls and their relationships with boys. Flake really gets the people she is writing about, and the problems they face. Wish I had read this when working in an urban high school: I would have been pushing this on teachers. What's especially nice is the length of the book and the stories it contains, would not discourage the most reluctant reader. Brava!

A fantastic collection of stories, each with a distinctive and authentic voice, about the life, times, and loves of inner city teens. The stories are about the big issues of urban life, but the joys in the stories reside in the small details. There's hope here, but there's also heartbreak as Flake shows young men and women coming of age. The three best stories ("So I Ain't No Good Girl", "I Like White Boy" and "Hunting for Boys") focus on girls trying to figure out love on their own, while the weakest link ("A Letter to My Daughter") could have been called "Papa Don't Preach." As she did in The Skin I’m In and her Raspberry Hill novels (Money Hungry and Begging for Change), Flake writes characters that are unique, yet also show more representative of the urban experience. Review originally appeared in Novelist. show less

Every middle school girl should be required to read and discuss this book. (And probably the boys as well.) Flake gets it, the relationship between some girls' self esteem and how they relate and interact with boys int heir lives. Some girls are dependent on their relationships, while others are independent and strong on their own. Lots of perspectives, lots to talk about packed into a easy to read and compelling collection of short stories.

Read:
Don't be Disrespecting Me - I love this author. This story completely wasn't what I expected. It was much sadder, and I wished I could've stepped in to stop the characters.

So I Ain't No Good Girl - Sharon Flake is a great writer. I got all tense because I could feel this character's desperation.

Every middle school girl should be required to read and discuss this book. (And probably the boys as well.) Flake gets it, the relationship between some girls' self esteem and how they relate and interact with boys int heir lives. Some girls are dependent on their relationships, while others are independent and strong on their own. Lots of perspectives, lots to talk about packed into a easy to read and compelling collection of short stories.

Every middle school girl should be required to read and discuss this book. (And probably the boys as well.) Flake gets it, the relationship between some girls' self esteem and how they relate and interact with boys int heir lives. Some girls are dependent on their relationships, while others are independent and strong on their own. Lots of perspectives, lots to talk about packed into a easy to read and compelling collection of short stories.