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A review by scaifea
Yolonda's Genius by Carol Fenner
2.0
Yolanda is big for her age, but she knows how to handle herself when the 'whale' jokes happen. She's smart but surly, and she doesn't really have any friends. Her little brother is quiet and has trouble reading, but Yolanda becomes convinced that he is a genius with their father's old harmonica, so she sets out to create a scheme that will convince her mother he needs special schooling to foster his gift.
There were things I really appreciated about this book, but then there were others that I really didn't. From the start, I didn't at all like Yolanda's character; I assumed that the story was traveling along the 'closed-off and prone-to-roughness kid learns to open up and empathize' theme so prevalent in Newbery Honor books, but Yolanda remains fairly selfish, unsympathizing, and unsympathetic throughout. The ending was abrupt and too pat, with a last-minute attempt to make Yolanda seem as if she has changed (although not done well enough for me to buy it). There are also a few threads to the story that fail to connect by the end, which leaves the whole thing feeling incomplete. And then the narrator made some strange choices in the character-voice department, making one fifth-grade girl sound like an old diner waitress with a decades-long smoking habit. Strange.
All this is too bad, really, because of the good things here: Yolanda's little brother and his musical abilities are nicely painted, especially in contrast to his struggles with reading and speaking. It seems clear that he's on the autism scale, and although his mother doesn't seem to want to admit that, he finds a strong ally in a speech therapist at school, and that relationship (although not completely fleshed out) is nicely portrayed. Also, Yolanda's family is made up of her mother and her aunt, who are self-made black women from Chicago and are easily members of the upper-middle class there. What I love about this is that it's presented as no big deal, as in clearly achievable to the point that it's not something to make the focus of the story. Most Middle Grade books featuring black families seem to revolve around those families living in poor neighborhoods and struggling financially, and those stories are important, yes, but it's also important to show other possibilities and other realities to young readers of color. I want them to live in a world in which successful women of color are so commonplace that that idea takes a far back seat to the rest of the story in the books those young readers read. So I'd like to see more of this, but I'd also like this particular story to live up to this background setting.
There were things I really appreciated about this book, but then there were others that I really didn't. From the start, I didn't at all like Yolanda's character; I assumed that the story was traveling along the 'closed-off and prone-to-roughness kid learns to open up and empathize' theme so prevalent in Newbery Honor books, but Yolanda remains fairly selfish, unsympathizing, and unsympathetic throughout. The ending was abrupt and too pat, with a last-minute attempt to make Yolanda seem as if she has changed (although not done well enough for me to buy it). There are also a few threads to the story that fail to connect by the end, which leaves the whole thing feeling incomplete. And then the narrator made some strange choices in the character-voice department, making one fifth-grade girl sound like an old diner waitress with a decades-long smoking habit. Strange.
All this is too bad, really, because of the good things here: Yolanda's little brother and his musical abilities are nicely painted, especially in contrast to his struggles with reading and speaking. It seems clear that he's on the autism scale, and although his mother doesn't seem to want to admit that, he finds a strong ally in a speech therapist at school, and that relationship (although not completely fleshed out) is nicely portrayed. Also, Yolanda's family is made up of her mother and her aunt, who are self-made black women from Chicago and are easily members of the upper-middle class there. What I love about this is that it's presented as no big deal, as in clearly achievable to the point that it's not something to make the focus of the story. Most Middle Grade books featuring black families seem to revolve around those families living in poor neighborhoods and struggling financially, and those stories are important, yes, but it's also important to show other possibilities and other realities to young readers of color. I want them to live in a world in which successful women of color are so commonplace that that idea takes a far back seat to the rest of the story in the books those young readers read. So I'd like to see more of this, but I'd also like this particular story to live up to this background setting.