WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

The unsubtle story of a high-schooler facing racial tension and hard choices. One of the few African-Americans at exclusive Endicott Academy, scholarship student—Nia Jones feels isolated and unwelcome. She's depended on older schoolmate Marcus Garvey Williams for support and encouragement, but suddenly Marcus is gone, the subject of harsh rumors. When someone makes a racist comment, Nia loses her cool, gets into a fight, and is suspended for two weeks. Swearing never to return, she goes back to her Newark neighborhood, where she's shocked to see one close friend hanging out with a hoodlum, another slaving at minimum wage. Finally, she tracks Marcus down; finding him trying to put his life in order while caring for his infant son opens her eyes to her own good fortune. Wesley's tale, based on her own family experience, has a bitter edge; she sees no choices for Nia beyond a dead-end life at home or swallowing her pride and keeping her ``eyes on the prize.'' Readers may like contrasting her story with Woodson's Maison at Blue Hill and its sequel (below). (Fiction. 12-15)