Library:ADCLP/The Dear One

The Dear One / Jacqueline Woodson.

Summary

Just before Feni turns 12 her mother announces that Rebecca, the daughter of a college friend, will come and stay for a few months. Rebecca is 15 years old, pregnant, and used to living in Harlem, not a well-off suburb. Feni resents all the attention Rebecca gets, she also resents her parent's divorce, her mother's alcoholism and her process of recovery, her mother's job which keeps her from being at home, and the death of her grandmother in a freak accident 8 years earlier. Despite their initial dislike of each other Rebecca and Feni grow closer together as they spend time together and begin to recognize shared bonds of disappointment, sorrow and strength.

Keywords

African Americans, Alcoholism, Fiction, Identity, Lesbians, Pregnant teenagers, Single-parent families

Reading Levels

Ages 12 - 15 / Grades 7 - 9

Publication History

• New York : Delacorte Press, 1991. 145 p. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0385304161
• New York : Dell, 1991. 145 p. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0440214203
• New York : Delacorte Press, 1991. 145 p. ; 22 cm. LCCN90-46677 OCLC 22452861
• New York, N.Y. : Dell, 1993. 145 p. ; 17 cm. ISBN 0440214203