Title: After Tupac and D Foster
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Summary: The events of this book take place between 1994 and 1996 – when Tupac Shakur was first shot and severely wounded outside a recording studio in Manhhattan, to a second, fatal shooting outside a Las Vegas club. It follows the lives of three friends – the brainy, sensitive narrator, her outspoken best friend Neeka and a new friend, the mysterious D Foster. D shows up one day on the girls’ sheltered Queens block and shows them a whole new world. But their friendship, like the life of their favorite rapper, is cut short by the realities of life, when D’s mother arrives to take her back.
This book uses the Tupac’s words to express what it was like to grow up during the turbulent ‘9os in New York, but it really is a subtle story about the importance of friendship, music, and finding your own path in an uncertain world.
Who will like this book?: People whose lives revolve around their favorite musicians, girls who want to read a book about friendship that is serious, but not too heavy or sad.
If you like this, try this: True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff or The Rose That Grew From Concrete, a collection of Tupac’s poetry and writings.
Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian