Sugar Town Queens

Product Description
From Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award winner and Edgar Award nominee Malla Nunn comes a stunning portrait of a family divided and a powerful story of how friendship saves and heals.\nWhen Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday, she knows it's going to be one of her mother's difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. This one involves Amandla wearing a bedsheet loosely stitched as a dress. An outfit, her mother says, is certain to bring Amandla's father back home, as if he were the prince and this was the fairytale ending their family was destined for. But in truth, Amandla's father has long been gone--since before Amandla was born--and even her mother's memory of him is hazy. In fact, many of her mother's memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It's just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give them strange looks--that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is Black.\nWhen Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother's handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it's finally time to get answers about her mother's life. What she discovers will change the shape and size of her family forever. But with her best friends at her side, Amandla is ready to take on family secrets and the devil himself. These Sugar Town queens are ready to take over the world to expose the hard truths of their lives.
From School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Amandla wakes up on her 15th birthday only to remember that surprise gifts are not always a good thing, especially when they come from her mother Annalisa. This year the gift is a blue "dress" made out of a sheet that will supposedly bring her long-absent father home. As always, Amandla acquiesces to Annalisa's fragile mental state and dons the strange attire while frantically plotting an escape plan. People already wonder about her mother's blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin, which stand in stark contrast to Amandla's brown skin and greenflecked hazel eyes. She cannot imagine the humiliation awaiting her when she leaves the house wearing the sheet and ponders the cause of her mother's mental fuzziness and "visions," why they live in their poor community, and who and where her father is. These questions propel the plot forward as Amandla uncovers the painful secrets of her mother's past with the help of supportive, intergenerational friends and family. She also gains the courage to confront violent misogyny and racism in a post-apartheid South Africa, coming to accept herself as a biracial, intelligent individual. VERDICT This descriptive, fast-paced narrative is a compelling read that is difficult to put down and will likely fly off library shelves.-Ruth Quiroa, National Louis Univ., Lisle, ILα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review
Praise for Sugar Town Queens:\nAn Amazon Best Book – August 2021\n★ “Amandla uncovers the painful secrets of her mother’s past with the help of supportive, intergenerational friends and family. She also gains the courage to confront violent ­misogyny and racism in a post-apartheid South Africa, coming to accept herself as a biracial, intelligent individual. This
descriptive,
fast-paced ­narrative is a
compelling read that is
difficult to put down and will likely fly off library shelves.” —
School Library Journal, starred review\n★ “Nunn grounds her tale in Amandla’s convictions and
embrace of her life and neighbors in Sugar Town. Complexities of race and racism in Mandela’s freed South Africa are
handled with realism and strength . . . but it is the
resilient community that is front and center in Nunn's
unique and detailed setting. Readers will cheer Amandla as she discovers who she is and where she came from in this
captivating book.” —
Booklist,
starred review\n★ “Nunn’s
evocative storytelling will make you ache for Amandla. She is a complex creation whose circumstances