Kendra

Phyllis Thompson

Growing up in the South Bronx isn't easy, and no one knows that better than 14-yearold Kendra Williamson. This is her story, an urban coming-of-age tale that is not afraid to expose the challenges of growing up female amidst the hard-edged realities of inner city life. It is in Booth's concrete, gritty realism, as seen in schoolgirl rivalries, skanky outfits, and hushed sex, as well as her emotional landscapes blighted by absence, rejection, and betrayal, that readers will find characters with whom they can connect and lives as complicated as their own. While Kendra can be characterized as a problem novel with an attitude, and one that will no doubt appeal to high school readers, it can also be characterized as a testament to humanity. While Booth's world is a dark and problematic one, it is not without hope. and she does not leave her readers without a guide. The explicit language and sexual content of this novel suggest that it is geared toward high school students. Reviewer: Phyllis Thompson

Children's Literature - Ashley Clay

Kendra, a ninth grade girl attending an arts school, lives in New York City with her grandmother. Her life comes to a confusing crossroads when she turns 14—interestingly, the same age her mother, Renee, was when she gave birth to Kendra. Because of her mother's teen pregnancy, Kendra lives an overly sheltered life facilitated by her grandmother, who fears Kendra will make the same mistakes as Renee. Kendra's sister-like relationship with her absent mother defines her life as she enters a hormonal high school world and starts experimenting with her own sexuality. When Renee, who has been away completing her PhD, takes a teaching job in New York City, Kendra believes she will finally be invited into her home and life as a daughter. Kendra is smart like her mother, but decisions she makes with the most attractive boy at school just might make her more like her mother than she thought. Coe Booth's follow-up effort to her first novel, Tyrell, solidifies her place in the literary world as a gritty and genuine writer. Both this novel and Tyrell highlight the struggles young teens face involving sex, drugs, and poverty. Reviewer: Ashley Clay

VOYA - Vikki Terrile

Kendra has spent her whole life waiting for her mother RenTe to come home and actually be her mother. Only fourteen when she gave birth, RenTe was able to finish school because her mother offered to care for Kendra, with the understanding that once she was done, mother and daughter would find a place of their own. Three degrees and fourteen years later, Kendra is still waiting for RenTe, getting in over her head with a boy at school, and needing a mother more than ever. As with Tyrell (PUSH/Scholastic, 2006/VOYA February 2007), Booth's strengths in this work are the reality of the story and the character's voice. Kendra's fear and disappointment about her mother's ambivalence permeates the novel, and she reacts with authentic teenage self-righteousness when accused of doing forbidden things she has done in secret. RenTe does not miraculously become the dream mother for whom Kendra has longed, but by the end of the novel, Kendra has gained the maturity to realize she is okay with the imperfect family she has. Unfortunately the novel includes some unsettling stereotypes about sex. Kendra says she feels dirty and used after her first encounters with Nashawn, a boy at school, and yet later is unable to resist him. She describes their hook-ups as something that "just happened," even though she says she knew it was wrong and a mistake. This rationalization is in character for a teen craving affection and raised by a strict grandmother, but it also denies Kendra any sexual empowerment. Teens will still be eager to get their hands on this powerful follow-up to Tyrell's story. Reviewer: Vikki Terrile

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up

Growing up with her grandmother in Bronxwood, 14-year-old Kendra Williamson is waiting for Renée, her 28-year-old mom, to finish school so they can get their own place. Kendra can't help but feel abandoned when her mother gets her PhD at Princeton and then moves to a studio apartment in Harlem, once again leaving her daughter behind. When her grandmother's restrictive rules, her crush's physical attention, and her friend's self-absorption become overwhelming, Kendra gets her chance to live with her mother and learn whether Renée can be a true parent. Booth has a talent for emotional honesty. When Kendra confronts her mother about her previous choices and learns that, if she could change the past, she would not keep Kendra, the feelings of abandonment and betrayal radiate from the page. The convoluted but redeeming friendship between Kendra and her best friend and aunt, Adonna, resonates with heartbreak and honesty. Teens will appreciate Kendra's internal justification monologues, especially in relation to her Nana; Booth balances that self-examination with street fights to further engage her audience. Adults act as fully realized characters, serving as disciplinarians and mentors, not moralizing preachers. Kendra's quick acquiescence to anal sex seems to be too fast, though this and all other sex scenes are neither graphic nor gratuitous. From Bronx blocks to Harlem hangouts, Booth delivers dynamic characters and an engaging story.-Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library

Kirkus Reviews

Kendra, a thoughtful, introspective teen, is more into theatrical design than getting into trouble. Even so, Grandmother Nana is very strict and dislikes Kendra's sassy best friend Adonna—who just happens to be her aunt. The only daughter of teenage parents, Kendra often dreams about her career-driven mother Renée's finishing her doctorate and rescuing her from Nana's rules. When Kendra finds herself attracted to Adonna's crush Nashawn and then becomes sexually active, her relationships and her life change forever. While Kendra's inner dialogue and feelings draw the reader into the story, the intimate episodes with Nashawn are vague and sudden, and her rationale for getting involved with him seems out of character. Thus, Kendra's tale is uneven, with a clear and honest voice in the first half, followed by an implausible trajectory to the end. Moreover, the central conflicts of the story—Kendra's relationships with her mother and grandmother—are rushed to a conclusion, subsumed beneath a typical urban teen romance. The powerful beginning nevertheless signals Booth as a talent to watch. (Fiction. 12 & up)