Teen Fiction

Jumped

Name: Jumped
Author: Rita Williams-Garcia
ISBN: 9780060760939

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia gives readers an intimate, gritty portrayal of three very different teens on the day when everything collides.

Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina.

Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right between us and is like, "Hey." I slam my fist into my other hand because she's as good as jumped.

Leticia: Girl fights are ugly. Girl fights are personal. And who's to say I wasn't seeing it from the wrong angle?

Synopsis

Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia gives readers an intimate, gritty portrayal of three very different teens on the day when everything collides.

Trina: "Hey," I say, though I don't really know them. It's okay if they don't speak. I know how it is. They can't all be Trina.

Dominique: Some stupid little flit cuts right between us and is like, "Hey." I slam my fist into my other hand because she's as good as jumped.

Leticia: Girl fights are ugly. Girl fights are personal. And who's to say I wasn't seeing it from the wrong angle?

Publishers Weekly

Alternating among the perspectives of three girls at an urban high school, Williams-Garcia (Like Sisters on the Homefront) shows once again her uncanny ability to project unique voices. Benched by the basketball coach for her low grades, Dominique is trying to bite back her rage when "some stupid little flit comes skipping down B corridor like the Easter Bunny.... Skipping. In all that pink" and walks between Dominique and her "girls," "like she don't see I'm here and all the space around me is mines." That's it-Dominique vows to "kick her ass" at exactly 2:45. Her intended victim, Trina-already full of herself over her looks, and pumped up because she's about to hang her latest masterpiece of art in a hallway)-does not hear, but Leticia does, and she can't wait to tell her best friend ("That would be something to see.... Trina getting stomped on school grounds"). And when Leticia's friend argues that Leticia ought to warn Trina, the plot quickens rather than taking a simple path around should-she/shouldn't-she. So well observed that the characters seem to leap off the page, the novel leaves a strong and lingering impact. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)

About the Author, Rita Williams-Garcia

Winner of the PEN/Norma Klein Award, Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of five other distinguished novels for young adults: Blue Tights, Every Time a Rainbow Dies, Fast Talk on a Slow Track, Like Sisters on the Homefront, and No Laughter Here, the latter four of which were chosen as ALA Best Books for Young Adults. Like Sisters on the Homefront was also named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book and a best book of the year by ALA Booklist, School Library Journal, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, and Publishers Weekly. She has also written an acclaimed novel for middle-grade readers, One Crazy Summer, which the New York Times called "a powerful and affecting story of sisterhood and motherhood."

Rita Williams-Garcia is currently a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the Writing for Children and Young Adults Program. She has two daughters, Michelle and Stephanie, and lives in Jamaica, New York.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Williams-Garcia deftly creates portraits of each of the girls as the narration moves from one to another, with the triangulation of view resulting in some fascinatingly complex characterization.”

Chicago Tribune

"This nailbiter of a tale, told from the girls’ three viewpoints, has great insight into the lives of teenage girls and how they interpret and perpetrate bullying."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Williams-Garcia deftly creates portraits of each of the girls as the narration moves from one to another, with the triangulation of view resulting in some fascinatingly complex characterization."

Horn Book Magazine

"The latest novel from Williams-Garcia offers a piercing snapshot of three girls in an urban high school, their daily struggle to realize their hopes and dreams, and the threat of school violence to shatter them all."

ALA Booklist

"Williams-Garcia makes the drama feel not only immediate but suffocatingly tense, as each tick of the clock speeds the three girls toward collision. Most impressive is how the use of voice allows readers to fully experience the complicated politics of high school; you can sense the thousand minidramas percolating within each crowded classroom."

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

Publishers Weekly

VOYA - Vikki Terrile

When Trina brushes past Dominique in their high school hall, it seems like nothing. But Dominique is looking for a fight, and Trina gives her the chance for one. Leticia overhears Dominique tell her friends that she plans to go after Trina at the end of the day. Will she tell Trina what she knows or let it play out? Williams-Garcia tackles girl-on-girl violence in a novel told in alternating first-person chapters by each of the three girls involved. Observing one day at a New York City high school, readers see how seemingly disconnected events and students can come together with tragic results. The randomness of the event that leaves Trina targeted is accurately described as "trifling" by Leticia's friend Bea, an intriguing "off-camera" character who gets the story from Leticia via cell phone and who urges Leticia to tell Trina what she knows to prevent the incident. What all three girls have in common is their adolescent self-absorption, and as the story plays out without a forced happy ending, readers will be left to consider how things could have been different. The voices of the three girls, unique and distinctive through much of the book, seem to blend for a bit past the halfway mark, but teens who live the reality of girl fights and getting jumped every day will surely see themselves and their friends in these girls whose lives change forever because of a chance contact in the hall. Reviewer: Vikki Terrile

Children's Literature - Ashleigh Vanada

Trina is lost in her own selfish world in which she thinks everyone loves her and wants to be her friend. One day at school, Dominique and her friends are in Trina's way, so she pushes through as though unaware of their presence. But Dominique isn't about to let anyone treat her that way, and she decides to jump Trina after school. Leticia overhears Dominique's plan and is torn between what she should do. If she warns Trina, she's breaking the silent high school code that says she should mind her own business. Finally, Leticia decides to keep quiet. At 2:45 p.m., Trina is unexpectedly trounced by Dominique. For months, Trina is in a coma from the brutal beating she experiences. Upon awakening, she is a different person. Her speech is delayed and she is no longer energetic. This novel accurately portrays how one moment can affect many lives permanently, for better or worse. As it follows these three characters through one day at their diverse high school, the story realistically portrays the drama, crude language and events to which all students can relate. While fast-paced, this novel doesn't provide a satisfying conclusion. None of the characters are remorseful for their actions, or lack thereof. While the book is extremely realistic and tightly-written, the author leaves the reader wanting more from the characters. Reviewer: Ashleigh Vanada

Kirkus Reviews

It's more than just three high-school girls-self-centered Leticia, skipping the last few minutes of her before-school, repeat Geometry class; angry Dominique, begging her teacher for five more points so she can play in the next basketball game; and overconfident Trina, hanging her Black History Month artwork in the corridor gallery-in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Trina cuts in front of Dominique and her girls, Dominique threatens, "I'm gonna kick that ass at two forty-five," and Leticia witnesses it all. Short, nuanced, alternating first-person chapters reveal the truth behind each girl's motivations throughout the day and challenge readers to ponder the culpability of each teen when Dominique carries out her threat and Leticia refuses to intervene. References to A Separate Peace and other literary and historical allusions help fuel the riveting debate. With a realistic look at girl-on-girl violence and gripping characterization, Williams-Garcia masterfully builds tension to the momentous ending. Although readers can anticipate the tragedy that transpires, it is shocking and agonizing nonetheless. (Fiction. YA)

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

ALA Booklist (starred review)

“Williams-Garcia makes the drama feel not only immediate but suffocatingly tense, as each tick of the clock speeds the three girls toward collision. Most impressive is how the use of voice allows readers to fully experience the complicated politics of high school; you can sense the thousand minidramas percolating within each crowded classroom.”

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“Teens who live the reality of girl fights and getting jumped every day will surely see themselves and their friends in these girls.”

School Library Journal

Gr 8–10—Before writing this novel (Amistad, 2009), Rita Williams-Garcia carefully observed students in a number of inner-city high schools, intent on creating this authentic story of self-absorbed, sociopathic teens. Teen voices narrate the actions of students during one day at their urban high school in this exceptional production. Leticia, privileged, spoiled, and shallow, is only interested in the excitement of the social drama surrounding her. Instead of becoming responsibly involved, she is absorbed in Celina, her "baby girl" cell phone, and the loss of her designer fingernail. Nique will not admit that she is responsible for the low grades that are keeping her off the basketball court. She insists her "troubled kid" label is unfair and that she has control of her temper. The catalyst in the story is Trina, a conceited, petite girl with personality and looks that all the girls envy and all the boys can't resist. When Leticia overhears Dominique threatening to beat up Trina, she really doesn't want to get involved and warn the girl to divert disaster. In alternating chapters, the story is told in three first-person accounts by the girls. The expert performances by various narrators enhance the author's characterizations of the teens and the adults who supervise them. Lyrically expressed in street talk with similes and metaphors, the strong characters have a lot to say. This insightful, realistic, and expertly written novel is a language arts teacher's dream, offering unlimited potential for active discussion.—Jennifer Ward, Albany Public Library, NY