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"Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle--of her Canadian nationality and her desire to be a "true" Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother's rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too "faas" or too "quiet" or too "bold" or too "soft." Set in "Little Jamaica," Toronto's Eglinton West neighbourhood, Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig's head in her great aunt's freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother's house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents. A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker. In her brilliantly incisive debut, Zalika Reid-Benta artfully depicts the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation Canadians and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominately white society."--… (more)
User reviews
Set in a Toronto suburb, these stories provided insight but
These coming-of-age stories all feature the narrator Kara, during her teen years. She has been raised in Toronto and environs by
This book felt very much YA to me (high school though, not middle school). Just as Kara struggles with her mother's expectations regarding dress, grooming, behavior, dating (none), and schoolwork, Eloise struggles with her own mother's expectations. Kara also struggles with her identity as a Jamaican-Canadian , whether within her old heavily Caribbean neighborhood or at her new largely white "better" school. Kara's problems are true for most teens, and even more true for teens with immigrant parents or grandparents.
I enjoyed this book, I knew nothing of the Canadian Caribbean community, and it was interesting to find our about it in this book. Though it was a little too YA-ish for me, I think those that love YA books (teens or not) would very much enjoy this book. An author to watch.
Kara Davis lives in Little Jamaica in Toronto with her mother and