Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers

Indigo Summer by Monica McKayhan
What a wonderful breath of fresh air! This novel was a pleasant and easy read. Indigo faces the everyday challenges of entering high school with out her best friend, trying out for drill team, making new friends and yes—“the first boyfriend.” Indigo is the only child who is growing up in the typical middle class family where parents are happily married and very involved in her daily life. She makes a new friend in Tameka who does have married parents but a day who is always working and a mother who had her at the age of 16. Indigo becomes the girlfriend of the school’s star football player, Quincy, and her new next door neighbor, Marcus, who gets on her last nerve, even though she can’t stop thinking about him. Marcus and Indigo become friends and share secrets about their lives with each other. They are both amazed at how easy it is to be around each other and each secretly wants to be with one another. The twist in the story is that Marcus’ father evicted Indigo’s best friend, Jade, from the house next door and when Indigo finds out she will not forgive Marcus even though he had nothing to do with it. Indigo struggles with the fact that Quincy wants to have sex and after the first date and she told him no, he did not call for several days, finally after refusing to have sex with him again, he dumps her and she is devastated. Marcus who had warned Indigo about Quincy also has to deal with the fact that a 9 year old little boy, Justin, who he has grown quite fond of while tutoring him in math, passes away from a stroke caused by sickle cell anemia. Finally the story ends with the two of them happily together and able to share private thoughts and feelings. A true love story—is there a part 2??


Diamonds In The Shadow by Caroline B. Cooney
This is a tale about deception and hope. Jared’s parents have volunteered to host a refugee family, the Amabo family, from Africa as part of their church work. Jared is resentful of having to share his room with the arriving teen boy and sees the family as an intrusion into his life. When the family arrives, Jared becomes suspicious immediately of the four refugees because, according to Jared, they do not interact like a true family.
Jared soon learns that in Africa, people are traded as property, innocent people being enslaved and incarcerated in large prisons due to the ‘blood” diamond trade. Unbeknownst to Jared, one of the murdering diamond traders, Victor, arrived on the plane with the Amabos, but was separated from them in the airport. It is not long before Jared discovers that the teenage boy, with whom he is sharing his room, is storing two boxes of these valuable diamonds. What he doesn’t know is Victor is on a search to find the Amabo family, and the diamonds.
Meanwhile, Jared’s sister Mopsy has taken on the mute Amabo daughter, Alike as her special project. She interacts with Alake, feeding, and dressing the girl, never knowing the horrors that the girl endured at the hands of Victor. In the book’s climax, Victor finds Mopsy and Alake alone at Jared‘s home. He wants the diamonds but Alake creates a plan. She lures Victor out to the breakwater near their home. She tricks Victor into joining her on this jetty and then heaves him into the icy depths of the ocean.
Jared realizes that, although not a biological family, the Amabos is truly in need of their American hosts’ help and the comfort of living in a free, safe country. Diamonds in the Shadow connects to young readers because it is a topic of which few know much about, told in a way that is familiar and relatable. Although we as Americans can relate to the mission work of our churches and public organizations, we often are leery of the unknown in other cultures. This book gives a glimpse into the atrocities that are truly occurring throughout the world, but puts it on a much more personal lever, making each character human.
I would recommend this book to adolescent readers, but would caution that it paints some graphic images and does not sugar-coat the horrible acts that occur world-wide. We know these American characters, Jared and Mopsy, and the author does an excellent job making us just as suspicious of the African family. Diamonds in the Shadow is both disturbing and relatable under the same dust jacket.