Synopses & Reviews
Staggerlee doesn't feel like she belongs in her own home town. She's a loner by nature, and her family is set apart by her parents' interracial marriage and by her celebrity grandparents' tragic deaths. Staggerlee claims her dog and harmonica are all the company she needs, but she yearns to have a friend who understands her. She once had a friend, Hazel, whom she felt connected to in a way she'd never felt before, until Hazel rejected her.
Then Daddy's sister Ida sends her adopted daughter, Tyler, to stay with the family for the summer. Staggerlee learns Tyler has been sent there to get over her "misguided" feelings towards girls. The two girls soon discover they can tell each other the thing they can't tell anyone else, but they struggle with what their feelings mean and how others would react if they knew.
Synopsis
A lyrical coming-of-age story from a three-time Newbery Honor winning author Thirteen-year-old Staggerlee used to be called Evangeline, but she took on a fiercer name. She's always been different--set apart by the tragic deaths of her grandparents in an anti-civil rights bombing, by her parents' interracial marriage, and by her family's retreat from the world. This summer she has a new reason to feel set apart--her confused longing for her friend Hazel. When cousin Trout comes to stay, she gives Staggerlee a first glimpse of her possible future selves and the world beyond childhood.
About the Author
Born on February 12th in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline Woodson grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. She now writes full-time and has recently received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. Her other awards include a Newbery Honor, two Coretta Scott King awards, two National Book Award finalists, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Although she spends most of her time writing, Woodson also enjoys reading the works of emerging writers and encouraging young people to write, spending time with her friends and her family, and sewing. Jacqueline Woodson currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.