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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Sent down south with her seven-month-old son to live with her aunt and uncle, 14-year-old Gayle is angry and resentful. It's bad enough being away from the girls in the neighborhood and her boyfriend, Troy, but her cousin, Cookie is too prissy and perfect for words, her uncle is a stern minister, and her aunt won't even watch the baby for her. Exasperated and sometimes at odds with these members of her family, Gayle finds the only bright spot is Great, her great grandmother, and even she takes some getting used to. Great is daunting, but also sharp and sassy, something Gayle understands. Great is also the keeper of the family story, and Gayle finds herself drawn to the old woman whose words offer her a sense of the past that is larger than herself even as it embraces her. A sometimes funny, always powerful story of an African-American family finding healing in unity: one with another, present with past. In Gayle, with her eager bravado on the subject of sex and immature understanding of love, Rita Williams-Garcia's creates a painfully realistic, stunningly accurate account of teenage sexuality and the need for belonging and love. Honor Book, 1995 CCBC Coretta Scott King Award Discussion: Writing (Ages 13-16)

CCBC Choices 1995 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1995. Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

February 2, 1998
A streetwise teenage mother goes to live with religious relatives in Georgia in this "unusually perceptive, streetwise novel," said PW in a starred review. "The emotions ring true, as does the portrait of contemporary black culture." Ages 12-up.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from September 4, 1995
As this unusually perceptive, streetwise novel opens, Gayle, 14, already a mother to seven-month-old Jose, is once again pregnant. Brooking no opposition, Mama marches Gayle to a clinic for an abortion, then sends her and Jose to Columbus, Ga., to live with Mama's semi-estranged brother, minister Luther Gates, and his family. Much to Gayle's surprise, the Gateses live in an antebellum mansion on a sizeable estate. And to her dismay, Luther's wife, ``Miss Auntie,'' assigns her to help care for Great, her bedridden great-grandmother, along with a host of other chores and, of course, caring for Jose. Foul-mouthed Gayle has nothing but contempt for the houseful of ``holy rollers''-especially cousin Cookie, who at 16 still wears kneesocks and hasn't been ``busted'' by a man, much less kissed. But through learning about family history from astute, acid-tongued Great and Miss Auntie, Gayle, who has always stood defiantly alone, begins to see how she is an integral part of a greater whole. Williams-Garcia (Fast Talk on a Slow Track) perhaps effects a faster metamorphosis in Gayle than is strictly credible, but no matter. The emotions ring true, as does the portrait of contemporary black culture. Ages 12-up.

From AudioFile Magazine

Narrator Joniece Abbot-Pratt delivers a dynamic listening experience of a book originally published 25 years ago. When 14-year-old Gayle becomes pregnant again, her mother sends her to live with her uncle's family in Georgia, along with her baby, Jos�. Away from her friends, she's stuck hanging out with her straitlaced cousin, Cookie, and caring for her dying grandmother, Great. Abbot-Pratt excels at adding personality to each character, switching seamlessly between Cookie's clear enunciation, Gayle's black vernacular, and Great's low, gravelly timbre. Listeners will be endeared by Gayle's candid tenacity as she discovers more about her roots through caring for Great. A heartwarming, authentic performance affirms the power of family. A.K.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine