Monday's Not Coming

Monday's Not Coming

YA/adult fiction
"...But that summer was different. Monday never responded to
any of my letters. Without them, the summer had crept by like a
runaway turtle..."
Claudia, protagonist of Tiffany Jackson's Monday's Not Coming,
has been best friends with Monday forever. So when she gets back from
two months in Georgia with her grandmother the first thing she wants
to know is what's up with her chum.
Only Monday's phone isn't working. Monday doesn't show up at
school the first day, the next, the next... Claudia is getting
worried that something is really wrong. The adults at her school
don't know anything. For the most part they don't seem all that
concerned.
Monday's mother makes Claudia even more alarmed.
"Her blackened lips cocked to the side as she snarled, 'Why you
asking so many questions? I said she ain't here. Now go on! You
know your bougie-ass mother don't want you around here.'"
Its highly engaging plot and believable characters alone would
make Monday's Not Coming a must read for its target audience and well
beyond. It also raises issues of race and class throughout the
narrative.
One alarming note raised really quickly is the way authority
figures ranging from school officials to police put little to no
effort into finding Monday, a Black child from the projects. If she
had been White and at least middle class they would have made locating
her a priority.
Then there's the gentrification thing. Monday's family and
their neighbors are getting eviction notices. Their homes will be
torn down to make way for something they'll probably never be able to
move back to.
I see Monday's Not Coming as a really fine read and a clarion
call to action.
On a purrrsonal note, what a difference a day makes! Where yesterday
I felt like I was in a snow globe being shaken by a giant, today is
downright placid. And Eugene is home safe from a lot of plowing.
(Jules)
Yasss! He is home! (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to blizzard battlers and their families.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway


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