EMAKO BLUE

This short, accessible story packs a huge emotional punch with its depiction of innocence lost to random gang violence. Three high-school friends and one enemy relate their memories as they attend the funeral of a beautiful, enormously talented girl from South Los Angeles. Readers can become immersed not only in the story of Emako’s short life, but that of Monterey, her middle-class friend; Jamal, a “player” with girls who truly falls in love with Emako; Eddie, a Hispanic boy determined to escape to college; and Samantha, a wealthy, jealous girl who spreads vicious rumors about Emako. With spare prose and ghetto slang, Woods targets her characters with pinpoint emotional accuracy, giving each a reality that should reach a diverse population of young readers. She provides abundant discussion topics and features short, easy chapters written with an honesty that should appeal even to highly reluctant readers. (Fiction. YA)