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A review by smalltownbookmom
Everything Within and In Between by Nikki Barthelmess
4.0
3.5 rounded up
I obviously wasn't the intended audience for this YA coming of age story featuring Ri, a Mexican American teen who has grown up in a household that focused on her lighter skin, denying her latinx roots but I still really enjoyed it.
Raised by her strict grandmoter, in the absence of her alcoholic mother, Ri goes tries to learn more about her culture, including taking a Spanish class and tracking down her mother. Along the way she learns more about her grandmother's experience with racism and why she pushed Ri to assimilate into mainstream society.
I enjoyed the family dynamics and friend relationships in this book. Ri has to negotiate how to embrace who she really is and what that means for her old friends and the group of Latinx teens she starts hanging out with. Recommended for fans of I am not your perfect Mexican American daughter.
CW: drug use, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, internalized racism
I obviously wasn't the intended audience for this YA coming of age story featuring Ri, a Mexican American teen who has grown up in a household that focused on her lighter skin, denying her latinx roots but I still really enjoyed it.
Raised by her strict grandmoter, in the absence of her alcoholic mother, Ri goes tries to learn more about her culture, including taking a Spanish class and tracking down her mother. Along the way she learns more about her grandmother's experience with racism and why she pushed Ri to assimilate into mainstream society.
I enjoyed the family dynamics and friend relationships in this book. Ri has to negotiate how to embrace who she really is and what that means for her old friends and the group of Latinx teens she starts hanging out with. Recommended for fans of I am not your perfect Mexican American daughter.
CW: drug use, alcoholism, teen pregnancy, internalized racism