A review by jwinchell
The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert

5.0

This is a rich, beautiful middle grade novel about friendship and race. The setting is a Southern California beach town and the new girl in town is goth- quite reminiscent of the upcoming Summer and July but 1000% more sophisticated and layered. Alberta lives with her two dads in the small town of Ewing Beach and she loves to surf and hang out with her best friend Laramie. Then Edie from New York; she and her mom take over the Bed & Breakfast on the same block as Alberta. It’s good that Edie is also 12 but it’s really good that Edie is also black- there are a few other black kids in town, but it’s hard to be feeling race when the white people in town pretend like it doesn’t exist. There’s so much to this book, like Al’s relationship with her birth mother Denise and the journals the girls find in the B&B. Each character is fully round and complex and authentic, which allows Alberta to navigate all of this with flair and realness. Highly recommended.