Book Review: Piecing Me Together

Piecing Me Together

 by Renne Watson

"Best Fiction for YA"

Summary

Jade Butler, an African American student attending St. Francis High School in present day Portland, Oregon struggles with living on the "other side" of town in a predominantly poor, black area. St. Francis is considered one of the best private schools in the predominantly white Portland area, making it a constant struggle for Jade to fit in and make friends.The school has few African American students and they tend to stick together. Jade's mom worries about her and the lack of friends she has. Lee Lee, her best friend, does not attend St. Francis High School, but they do hang out all the time outside of school.

Jade's mother was fired from her job at Emanuel Hospital for petty theft and now is a housekeeper for a rich, older woman, Louise. Jade's uncle, E.J., a twenty year old deejay, lives with them as well. Her father lives in Portland, divorced from Jade's mom, and lives with his white girlfriend who had the opportunity to attend college and obtain a well paying job.

Jade meets with Mrs. Parker, the guidance counselor, about attending an overseas volunteer program in Costa Rica. She is ecstatic with the idea of traveling overseas and helping others, and Mrs. Parker gives her several opportunities to prepare her for the program with an essay writing class and SAT preparatory classes the previous year. Jade studies hard in Spanish class and helps others when they need it. Mrs. Parker does speak with Jade about an opportunity to earn a scholarship to any Oregon college if her grade point average stays up. The entire conversation was never focused on the overseas program at all, worrying Jade, and centered more around the mentor program and why she was selected for it.

She meets "Book Girl" on the bus, riding from about the same area Jade lives in. They become acquainted and Jade finds out her name is Samantha, or Sam, and they quickly find out how much they have in common, despite the fact Sam is white. Sam lives with her grandparents ever since her mother abandoned her. Sam's grandmother is racist towards African Americans, but her grandfather is open and welcoming to Jade.

Jade soon finds out she was not chosen for the overseas program, but another program, Woman to Woman: A Mentorship Program for African American Girls. Jade is distraught. She wanted to be the one mentoring, not the one being mentored. There are twelve girls within the program and each girl is assigned a mentor. The mentors will be there for personal issues as well as group activities and trips into the city.

At the first meeting, Jade's mentor does not show, and she is even more frustrated and embarrassed at having to be a part of this program. That same night, a young, white woman, about E.J.'s age, appears at Jade's door named Maxine. Funny enough, Maxine and E.J. know each other from high school and catch up for a minute. Maxine is in a relationship with Jon, suffering from constant struggles and on going break ups. Jon and E.J. work on demos together and talk about some of the relationship issues.

As the mentor meetings and activities continue on, Jade finds out very little about Maxine because she is constantly ditching their appointments or on the phone with Jon. Jade confronts Maxine about her lack of commitment and Maxine promises to make sure it doesn't happen any more. Of course, it does continue to happen, and instead of doing something real about it, Maxine just showers Jade with gifts and fake apologies.

Throughout the novel, you understand Jade's love of art. She takes old newspapers and magazines, cutting pictures out to create collages of her life, ideas, future plans, and so on. Maxine saw her work and was impressed, promising Jade that she will introduce her to her artsy sister, Mia.

Despite being highly intelligent, advanced in art, and strong, Jade still struggles with overcoming race, gender, and poverty issues. When Maxine invites Jade over to her house for dinner with her family, she is embarrassed to find out how Maxine's family really feels about her participating in the mentor program. Jade has never felt good enough, and this situation just makes things worse.

Jade comes to the point of realizing that she does not need Maxine to succeed and flourish and becomes aggressive towards any invitations Maxine gives out. Sam is invited to the overseas volunteer program, leaving Jade angry and upset with her. Lee Lee becomes upset with Jade because she thinks she is focused on other things that are not as important. The continued issue of race comes into play with both Lee Lee and Sam and their relationship with Jade.

Jade ends up accepting her life, in a way, and displays her art at Mia's gallery, per Maxine's request. Sam and Jade rekindle their friendship, along with adding Lee Lee into their group. This beautifully written story told through first person point of view starts as a young, broken girl explaining her life and how it cannot get worse, which is does, but ends on a high note of  accepting friends for who they are, learning that you can't pick your family, and to learn to love yourself.

Book Trailers

Renee Watson's website is colorful and full of positive pictures, novels, and interviews associated with African American culture. While there was no trailer on the website, she did load a first draft audio file of Piecing me Together. 

Themes

Friendship, Family, Privilege, Race, Identity, Coming of Age, Poverty, and Expression.

Similar Themed Books

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, and The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon.

Other Books by Renee Watson

Renee Watson calls herself a writer, performed, and educator. Based on her website, I can see each part of the three being advertised. Per her website, Renee Warson has written six other books, some being novels and others being illustrated children's books.

Teaching Ideas

Have each student create a collage from one of the following choices:
1. Present day life: what they enjoy now, family, friends, school.
2. Future goals: high school, college, family, jobs.
3. City life: what does the city of Houston look like as a collage? Have students go out and take actual photos of Houston as opposed to finding them predominantly in magazines and newspapers.

For present day life collages, have students write a summary, on the back of the paper, explaining why they put those specific pictures.

For future goals collages, post them around the library and see if others can guess what collage belongs to who based on what others know about each other. A student who is more outgoing would tend to speak more about their future and goals, therefore easier to figure out.

For city life collages, have students verbally explain why they chose to take the pictures they did.