by Stephane Dunn (Author)
Junior Library Guild Selection
When the grownups can't do it, three friends join together to figure out who killed a little boy in their neighborhood in this stunning debut YA by award-winning playwright Stephane Dunn.
Nia Barnes is preparing to enter high school and trying to stay on her mama's good side. Life in her small Midwestern city hasn't been the same since her father's unsolved murder, driving Nia's love of detective novels and true crime stories.
When the little boy she babysits is caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting, Nia and her best friends Dontay and Miracle Ruth secretly set out to get him justice. They look up police reports and listen to the conversations of their elders; they try to follow suspects the way Nia's favorite teen detectives might.
But the search for truth isn't straightforward, especially when you're somewhere between being kids and adults, and people want peace but are afraid to talk.
Writer and filmmaker Stephane Dunn makes her YA debut with this endearing, heart-wrenching novel about loss, truth, and the reality of violence in communities everywhere.
Author Biography
Stephane Dunn is a writer, filmmaker and professor. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Vogue, Ms. magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, CNN.com, The Root, and Best African American Essays 2009, among others. She is the author of Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films, and the Tirota/Finish Line Social Impact Script Competition award-winning screenplay, Chicago '66. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her family. Find her on Twitter at @DrStephaneDunn.