American Street by Ibi Zoboi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I scan google I often see, if you liked RONIT AND JAMIL, you will also like AMERICAN STREET by Ibi Zoboi. This book is so different from mine, yet I understand its lyricism and language are equally compelling, and its story is relevant, poignant, authentic. A young Haitian girl comes with her mother to America, but while her mother is detained in New Jersey, Fabiola is shipped off to her cousins in Detroit, where she was supposed to be with her Mom, aunt and cousins. Relying on her spiritual guides, she learns to navigate the loss of her mother and the loneliness of being in a new culture. Freedom comes at a cost. The streets of Detroit and the American world are not any less catastrophic than her native Haiti. Fabiola is torn between so many contradictory forces, including her love for family coupled with the morality of what they are doing wrong. And there are also the challenges of the streets which become their own kind of character. I love Fabiola, her family, the daring diction with which Zoboi tells her story. A young-adult must read!

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