Caprice

After spending seven weeks in Upstate New York, attending a summer leadership program at prestigious boarding school Ainsley International, rising eighth grader Caprice is invited to continue her education there on a full scholarship, an opportunity her family wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. But arriving back at the Newark, N.J., community center where she usually spends summers, she contemplates staying with her parents and close hometown friends, including bestie Nicole, who has become interested in makeup and boys. When the family receives news that Caprice’s maternal grandmother’s health is failing in Baltimore, they face a long-standing rift (“Grandma’s on one side with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. And Mom’s on the other side with just me and Dad”) and wounds around trauma that Caprice experienced as a younger child. Alternating Caprice’s first-person narration with lines of her poetry (“Sometimes it’s only your body that remembers/ all the details nobody else knows”), Booth (Kinda Like Brothers) offers a thoughtful framework for exploring sexual abuse and generational family secrets. Ages 9–12. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (May.)