Like Vanessa
by Tami Charles (Author)
Booktalk: In this semi-autobiographical debut novel, thirteen-year-old Vanessa Martin watches as the first black Miss America is crowned. It’s 1983 in Newark, New Jersey, and Vanessa’s life is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with family, friendships, racism, and self-confidence. When a new teacher at school coordinates a beauty pageant and asks Vanessa to enter, Vanessa decides there’s no way. But with help from Pop Pop and her cousin TJ, Vanessa prepares for the challenge. Add in the neighborhood mean girl, a mysterious envelope addressed to Vanessa, and trying to make monthly ends meet, and eighth-grade is as stressful as it gets.
Snippet: The table is as festive as I can get it. In the center there’s a turkey I made out of paper towels, and beside each plate, I fold pieces of toilet paper into the shape of a feather. This is about as much Thanksgiving as I can create for what little we got.
If I had a mother, our Thanksgiving dinner table would look a lot different. There’d be no way that she would allow me to serve turkey-leg-shaped Spam balls. Mama would’ve roasted us a big turkey, even if she had to go to some remote woods and kill the dang thing herself. There would have been macaroni and cheese, collard greens with smoked ham hocks, and sweet-potato pie with a side of vanilla ice cream for dessert.
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