KENDRA

Kendra, a thoughtful, introspective teen, is more into theatrical design than getting into trouble. Even so, Grandmother Nana is very strict and dislikes Kendra’s sassy best friend Adonna—who just happens to be her aunt. The only daughter of teenage parents, Kendra often dreams about her career-driven mother Renée’s finishing her doctorate and rescuing her from Nana’s rules. When Kendra finds herself attracted to Adonna’s crush Nashawn and then becomes sexually active, her relationships and her life change forever. While Kendra’s inner dialogue and feelings draw the reader into the story, the intimate episodes with Nashawn are vague and sudden, and her rationale for getting involved with him seems out of character. Thus, Kendra’s tale is uneven, with a clear and honest voice in the first half, followed by an implausible trajectory to the end. Moreover, the central conflicts of the story—Kendra’s relationships with her mother and grandmother—are rushed to a conclusion, subsumed beneath a typical urban teen romance. The powerful beginning nevertheless signals Booth as a talent to watch. (Fiction. 12 & up)