"And I remember the boy in the park,
his words erasing me for weeks. What
kind of girl are you? I remember my
ball disappearing. My basketball shoes
growing moldy in the back of my closet.
The hollow place his words left behind.
But now even that has faded.
And maybe that's what matters.
That time soothes the sharp sting
of pain. Until only the soft and hazy
edges of the hurt are remembered."
Sage is 12 and would rather spend time playing basketball than thinking about what most other girls her age are doing. She has few concerns about how she looks, and finds herself feeling uncomfortable spending her time with her girl friends who continually worry about how they look. She and Freddy, a new boy, feel the same about basketball and spend time together shooting hoops and talking New York Knicks. They have much in common.
Their Bushwick neighborhood is inundated with fires, leaving many families without a home. Sage and her mother will soon be relocating away from the worry and the sirens that disturb their sleep night after night. In the midst of this coming change, Sage is also still grieving her firefighter father's death, leaving his family home, and the way she was treated by a boy at the park. It fills her with self-doubt, and makes her think seriously about taking a break from basketball, which she does.
The setting of Bushwick in the 1970s is very clear, right from the start. It was a time of worry and hardship for those living there while fires burned all around them. Each chapter, short or longer, is filled with memories and feelings. Sage is part of a wide and close community; her connection to it is powerful. The friendships are strong, and lasting while also being threatened by outside circumstaces.
Readers will certainly feel connected to Sage, her worries and triumphs. The scenes are so real, the feelings deep and the community strong. This is another exceptional story from an extremely accomplished writer.
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