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A review by themaddiest
The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson
3.0
Asha Jamison and her best friend Carey Wong want to go on a trip after they graduate from high school. Both girls are model students, on track for acceptance into great colleges, and they feel like they deserve a break. In order to fund their theoretical vacation, they come up with a business plan to sell t-shirts advertising The Latte Rebellion--a simple idea that asks people who come from mixed race backgrounds to stand up and be proud of their skin and their backgrounds. What starts as a simple idea catches on and begins to spread around the country. Both girls--but especially Asha--find themselves caught up in a political movement that soon spirals out of their control and puts them in hot water with their school, their parents, and their peers.
There's a lot of good stuff going on in Stevenson's book about a normal teenage girl who discovers a drive within herself to work for change. Stevenson is a strong writer who develops the characters of Asha and Carey especially well. She populates their world with a wide array of other characters who add dimension to the story. Asha has a positive relationship with her parents, which is always nice to see, but it isn't perfect, and while they are warm and obviously care for her, they also discipline her when it's called for. The realistic portrayal of what it's like to be a senior in high school feeling the pressure of looming college acceptance letters is also particularly on point.
Stevenson should also be commended for her portrayal of the complicated, changing relationships between two best friends. As Asha slowly awakens to the social justice cause, her best friend Carey retreats from it. The two begin to grow apart, and while Asha can't seem to see it or understand why it's happening, the reader can. As we grow up, our interests change and we drift away from friends we were close to before. As each girl begins to navigate young adulthood, they find that they can't be as close as they once were. This realistic representation of female friendship on the brink of adulthood is both heart-breaking and reassuring: it's a universal event in a girl's life.
Although the pacing is uneven, Stevenson's novel is highly enjoyable. The middle of the book gets slightly weighed down with events leading up to the climax, but readers invested in the plot and the characters will be able to overlook this. Highly recommended.
The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamilla Stevenson: Flux, 2011. Library copy.
There's a lot of good stuff going on in Stevenson's book about a normal teenage girl who discovers a drive within herself to work for change. Stevenson is a strong writer who develops the characters of Asha and Carey especially well. She populates their world with a wide array of other characters who add dimension to the story. Asha has a positive relationship with her parents, which is always nice to see, but it isn't perfect, and while they are warm and obviously care for her, they also discipline her when it's called for. The realistic portrayal of what it's like to be a senior in high school feeling the pressure of looming college acceptance letters is also particularly on point.
Stevenson should also be commended for her portrayal of the complicated, changing relationships between two best friends. As Asha slowly awakens to the social justice cause, her best friend Carey retreats from it. The two begin to grow apart, and while Asha can't seem to see it or understand why it's happening, the reader can. As we grow up, our interests change and we drift away from friends we were close to before. As each girl begins to navigate young adulthood, they find that they can't be as close as they once were. This realistic representation of female friendship on the brink of adulthood is both heart-breaking and reassuring: it's a universal event in a girl's life.
Although the pacing is uneven, Stevenson's novel is highly enjoyable. The middle of the book gets slightly weighed down with events leading up to the climax, but readers invested in the plot and the characters will be able to overlook this. Highly recommended.
The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamilla Stevenson: Flux, 2011. Library copy.