Are you a young adult who likes books? Let's talk!
The YA Discussion Group is a virtual book club for young adult readers. We'll be reading a different book every month and discussing it alongside whatever else we've been reading, watching, and thinking about. This is the world's lowest-pressure book club—don't like the book? Don't finish it! Ran out of time? It's that kind of year. Rather tell us about the 20-volume fantasy epic that's been consuming your every waking moment? We want to hear about it!
Our book this month is The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Twin Cities author and activist Junauda Petrus. It's freshly out in paperback, and when you mention in your online order that you're part of book club we'll kick 20% back to you, making it only $8! A great deal on a great book and great conversation. What could be better?
The meeting will be on September 20th at 5:30 pm via Zoom, and we'll send out a Zoom link a little bit ahead of time. For now, happy reading, and we can't wait to see you there!
Sunday, September 20 at 5:30PM: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus.
To join the YA Discussion Group and get a link to our next meeting, please contact Linda at staff@wildrumpusbooks.com.
Please note: Book club meetings take place on Zoom.
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus's bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both.
Port of Spain, Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she's going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor's daughter. Audre's grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won't lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. "America have dey spirits too, believe me," she tells Audre.
Minneapolis, USA. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels--about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that's plagued her all summer. Mabel's reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner.
Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it's Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.
Junauda Petrus's debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.