From Amazon.com
Toswiah Green. Evie Thomas. One girl. Two names. Two lives. When her police officer father witnesses two white cops killing a black boy, he makes the heart-wrenching decision to testify against his former friends. Overnight, thanks to the witness protection program, Toswiah becomes Evie, and she and her family leave their idyllic Denver, Colorado, life far behind. Toswiah's previously happy, lighthearted mother abruptly turns to religion, her big sister makes secret plans to escape the family, and her proud father collapses inward to a depressed, almost catatonic state. Adolescent Toswiah--now Evie--copes as best she can, taking up track and field in school, and trying to fathom who she is, and who she is becoming.
Jacqueline Woodson, Coretta Scott King Award-winning author of Miracle's Boys and many other highly acclaimed titles, delves deep into the confused hearts of a family that has lost its identity. Toswiah, as a young teenager, was already on the verge of shaping her identity as a young woman; with these shattering events, it takes every ounce of strength and courage to keep her core intact. (Ages 13 and older) --Emilie Coulter
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
When Toswiah Green's father, witness to a murder, does the right thing by testifying against two fellow police officers, he puts his entire family in danger. Now the Greens have fled for their lives, leaving behind all that is comfortable and familiar for the alien existences laid out by the witness protection program. Shifting between past and present, Woodson's (Miracle's Boys; If You Come Softly) introspective novel probes the complex reactions of 12-year-old Toswiah as she reluctantly reinvents herself as Evie Thomas. Telling lies about her past is as awkward for Toswiah as her adjustment to a new apartment, city and school, but most disturbing of all is the fragmentation of her formerly close-knit family. Toswiah's mother, searching for meaning and for support, becomes an avid Jehovah's Witness. Mr. Green slips into suicidal depression, and Toswiah's older sister, unbeknownst to their parents, arranges to enter college at 15. "Evie/Toswiah Thomas/Green," as the narrator once refers to herself, taps hidden stores of inner strength, ultimately realizing that "I am no longer who I was in Denver, but at least and at most I am." Readers facing their own identity crises will find familiar conflicts magnified and exponentially compounded here, yet instantly recognizable and optimistically addressed. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
