Leslie Popkin

I have read Jacqueline Woodson’s powerful children’s books to my students and was eager to experience her as an adult author. She did not disappoint. I was drawn into this poetically written novel, and stood alongside the characters as they struggled through the chanllenges and the decisions they made. I did not live their lives. I do not share their backgrounds. Yet I truly felt that Woodson perfectly created the landscape, the emotional struggles and took me along.