The Unboxing of a Black Girl (YA Memoir in verse)

     Do not underestimate Angela Shante's The Unboxing of a Black Girl. This slim volume carries more insight, more nuance, and more complexity than many much larger books.

     The narrative, told mostly in verse, describes Shante's experiences of growing up Black in New York. 

"I want to live in a world 

where Black girls get to hold on to their childhood. 

Get to

sweet sixteen and quinceanera 

      right before curfew

     and the streetlights come on

I want to lives in a world 

where Black girls get to be safe 

get to frolic in fields with their shoes off

and inspect insects 

     inspect innocence 

     with careless abandonment. 

I want to live in a world where Black girls get to be free."

     The world Shante grew up in was one in which mothers to be painfully honest with their very young daughters, knowing that the white adults would adultify them, consider them fully grown when they were anything but. Talking about the elders, she says,

"They were once girls

who wanted to be gentle 

who sought comfort

but their childhoods were ushered out the door 

like unwanted house guests

for survival 

for protectiona 

in preparation."

     Shante candidly shares her memories from early childhood to college in what is truly an interactive read. In her footnotes she urges people to take a break to read a book, listen to music, watch a show, or do an exercise (Look around your neighborhood at the exercises available to you and your family. What do you notice? What do you wonder?) She recommends. Her reader's guide is a treasure trove of resources. 

     If I was a high school English teacher I would bump some irrelevant dead guy from the curriculum and add this rich, complex, and very timely book.

On a purrrsonal note, yesterday Eugene left the house a few minutes after he got home from work. I figured out he was going to a store. Then it was three hours later. I began to wonder if my medically frail MIL was hospitalized again. Rather than panic I decided she probably was home watching tv; Gene had probably got a hot tip on an affordable used truck. He's been hunting for one for ages. I was right. Picture tomorrow. 

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.

Jules Hathaway 

     

    

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