Courage

The tense relationship between two brothers drives this middle grade debut set on Chicago’s South Side, as narrator T’Shawn turns 13, joins a diving team, and deals with the return of his older brother, Lamont, from prison. Raised by his mother after his father’s death from cancer (an illness that left crushing medical debt and caused the family a brief stint in a shelter), T’Shawn realizes that he wants to dive. A windfall scholarship allows him to participate in the sport, despite the notion that African-Americans “don’t do water sports.” Though the sports thread and familiar middle school issues, such as crushes, loom large, friction in T’Shawn’s home anchors the story: he cannot forget the violence and betrayals of Lamont’s former gang days and regards him as “the biggest villain I know.” Binns amplifies T’Shawn’s distrust with the neighborhood’s concerns, and conflict heightens after T’Shawn gets swept up in a petition to send Lamont away. While forced dialogue marks some of the coverage of weighty issues, this novel successfully tackles the realities of homelessness, police intimidation and violence, and racism, and it ultimately demonstrates that forgiveness requires courage. Ages 8–12. [em](July) [/em]