Book Review: “A Good Kind of Trouble” by Lisa Moore Ramée
“A Good Kind of Trouble” by Lisa Moore Ramée (2019)
Genre: Fiction, Middle Grade, Contemporary
Page Length: 384 pages (electronic edition)
Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.)
But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?
Shay’s sister, Hana, is involved in Black Lives Matter, but Shay doesn’t think that’s for her. After experiencing a powerful protest, though, Shay decides some rules are worth breaking. She starts wearing an armband to school in support of the Black Lives movement. Soon everyone is taking sides. And she is given an ultimatum.
Shay is scared to do the wrong thing (and even more scared to do the right thing), but if she doesn’t face her fear, she’ll be forever tripping over the next hurdle. Now that’s trouble, for real.
Review:
A middle-grade coming-of-age story that follows the main character, Shayla, as she navigates through junior high school. Shayla tries to handle new dilemmas that come her way such as first-time crushes, changing friendship dynamics, and her own identity The novel shows a young black girl’s perspective of the world and I could relate to some of Shayla’s experiences from my own youth.
A Good Kind of Trouble is as much a self-discovery journey as is a story about race. Shayla struggles to comprehend the world around her and why she feels like such an outsider to people that look like her. Most of all this novel is a story about standing up for what you believe in, and that “good trouble” is needed to show how important something is (and to get others’ attention).
This novel is aimed at younger readers and I like how it discusses the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. It brings up many nuanced conversations that can lead to larger discussions. I enjoyed reading Shayla’s story and how this novel focuses on dismantling the myth of Black people being a monolith. There is so much transparency in the novel that made it very accessible to its audience.
Final Verdict:
