Fourth grader, Ryan Hart strives to live up to her name, "I do not have a boy's name, I have my name. My name is Ryan and Ryan means 'king' and that means I am a leader -"
The Hart's, a Black family in Portland Oregon, have to make some changes when Dad loses his job at the post office and takes a night-shift job for less pay. The family has to leave their current home, for a smaller one. They need to get rid of one of their cars. They need to shop differently for groceries. None of these changes diminish Ryan's outlook, nor the family's love for one another.
Each chapter is a small vignette of Ryan's and her family's everyday life. Each vignette is sometimes humorous, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes embarrassingly painful, but always with Ryan facing the circumstances with effort and honesty. In one particular chapter, Ryan begs her older brother Ray to go bike riding with him and his friends. He reluctantly allows her to go. Ray beats his friend in a bike race, and is then challenged by his little sister. Ryan beats her brother, who is already exhausted from the previous race. In celebration, she tosses her helmet, with it landing in a bush. When she goes to retrieve it, she discovers the bush has a beehive. Her brother, lovingly, warns her to be still, but she screams and runs home, sure she is being chased by an army of bees. Once home, crying and out of breath, her mother calms her. Once calm, she starts laughing...not only did she out race her brother, she out ran an army of bees!
While providing a mirror for Black young girls, Renée Watson gives a window, from which all girls will find something relevant and relatable. This title is first of a new series
Mark's Book Picks Score: 4
Reading Level: 4.5 • Interest Level: 3-6 • AR Points: 4 • Lexile Level: NA • Publisher: Bloomsbury • Pages: 177 • Copyright: 2020 • ISBN: 978-1-547-60056-4 • Available in Perma-Bound Binding
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