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by Blessing Musariri
When fifteen-year-old Chianti learns that her dad isn't her biological father, her family splinters.
Chianti goes to stay with her maternal grandmother, Ambuya, an eccentric and formidable ex-freedom fighter in Zimbabwe's civil war.
Ambuya's closest neighbors are the gogos: her three best-friends-turned-business-partners, who take Chianti under their wings. They make a living by upcycling choice items of secondhand clothing―when their supply chain's not being disrupted by thieves.
In between helping with the gogos' business, Chianti becomes fascinated by a box of her grandmother's old photos. As she wrestles with the ghosts of their past as well her own, she realizes that time is slippery, that family isn't defined by blood, and that it's never too late for a transformation.
"A sparkling jewel of a story grounded in emotional truths." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In the end, [Musariri] has taken an age-old narrative―the meaning of family―and given it a wholly fresh, new look." ―Booklist
"A brief, beautiful Zimbabwean novel about war and family ..." ―School Library Journal
This information about When It's Your Turn for Midnight 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.
Blessing Musariri is a Zimbabwean writer who has published short stories, poems, and novels. Her most recent YA novel, All That It Ever Meant (Zephyr/Head of Zeus and Norton, 2022), received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and was chosen as an honor book by the Children's Africana Book Awards. Blessing has worked as a freelance editing and proofreading consultant and as an English teacher.
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