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Author Charlene Allen blends mystery, romance, and friendshipin this contemporary YA novel perfect for fans of We Deserve Monuments and Far from the Tree.
The way Clae's mom tells it, her dad took off when Clae was a baby, end of story. Ever since, it's just been the two of them, living in the coastal city of Gloucester, where Clae is one of the only few Black girls. But when Clae discovers clues about a mysterious person she calls her fairy god somebody, she's determined to know more.
Her chance comes when she's accepted into a summer journalism program in New York City, where her parents lived before she was born. With a couple of leads and a steel resolve, Clae leaves home for the first time to find out about her history.
New York is as full of magic as it is mystery, not to mention romance. From Brooklyn to Broadway, Clae and her new friends, Nze and Joelle, explore neighborhood haunts and hustles, discovering a family trail that someone's tried hard to bury. So who is the fairy god somebody? And can Clae use her sleuthing skills to find out the truth?
Set against one unforgettable NYC summer, this is the story of lies that run deep and patterns that are meant to be broken. Clae, Nze, and Joelle will stick with you and remind you that every girl deserves to write her own story.
"A richly drawn story that explores the precarious construction of identity and the pain of complex family dynamics." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Though Allen packs this lively and heartfelt story with a few too many plotlines, the relatable characters and Clae's search for the family she's never known drive this entertaining piece that explores concepts surrounding Black Freedom Schools and the importance of journalism." —Publishers Weekly
This information about My Fairy God Somebody was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charlene Allen works with community organizations to heal trauma and fight injustice, especially the beast called mass incarceration. She received her MFA from the New School, her JD from Northeastern University, and her BA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She lives in Brooklyn with her fabulous family and their very silly dog. Play the Game was her first novel.
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