Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Watson, Renee. PIECING ME TOGETHER New York : Bloomsbury, 2018 IL YA ISBN 9781408897348 (3 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Booktalk #1 Jade is tired of people trying to fix her when she is not even broken. Being one of the few black students (and even fewer economically challenged kids) attending an elite private school in Portland, Jade is continually given “opportunities” that she feels like she has to take in order to make it out of her poor neighborhood. When her guidance counselor offers her one of just 20 spots in the Woman to Woman program for young, smart black women in Portland, she reluctantly agrees. Even though Jade is unsure what her privileged mentor Maxine can teach her, Maxine encourages Jade’s creativity as an artist and supports her when she wants to enact change in the world that is constantly trying to fix her. Through her love of language, art, and culture, Jade finds her voice and learns to be an agent of change in her own life when and where it matters. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020) Booktalk #2 Every morning, Jade crosses the city to attend St. Francis, the mostly-white, expensive private school she attends on scholarship. And every afternoon, she heads back to North Portland, the “bad” neighborhood she feels like she has to leave to succeed. Jade is used to taking ugly things and piecing them together to make something beautiful, like the collages she creates out of scraps of paper and fabric. She is used to having to accept any opportunity that comes her way. So when she is selected for “Woman to Woman: a Mentorship Program for African American Girls,” she accepts it, even though she doesn’t think she needs a mentor, especially one like Maxine, who comes from money and doesn’t seem to understand Jade at all. What Jade really wants is to be chosen for the study abroad program, where she can practice Spanish and serve others in a foreign country. But will anyone ever see her as having something to give, instead of something she needs? Becky Standal, Longview Public Library https://evergreenbookaward.org/) Booktalk #3 Jade is supposed to be fighting for a way out of a poor neighborhood to save her future. She attends a mostly white private school, takes SAT prep classes, and has just joined women to Women to Women, a program for “at risk” youth. But Jade isn’t in a rush to leave her neighborhood. She doesn’t want to be saved, she doesn’t need to be saved, and it’s time she explains that to the “helpful” adults in her life. (Connecticut Nutmeg Award https://www.nutmegaward.org/)
	SUBJECTS: Mentoring -- Fiction. High schools -- Fiction. African Americans -- Fiction.

Watson, Renee.
PIECING ME TOGETHER
New York : Bloomsbury, 2018
IL YA
ISBN 9781408897348

(3 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews

Booktalk #1

Jade is tired of people trying to fix her when she is not even broken. Being one of the few black students (and even fewer economically challenged kids) attending an elite private school in Portland, Jade is continually given “opportunities” that she feels like she has to take in order to make it out of her poor neighborhood. When her guidance counselor offers her one of just 20 spots in the Woman to Woman program for young, smart black women in Portland, she reluctantly agrees. Even though Jade is unsure what her privileged mentor Maxine can teach her, Maxine encourages Jade’s creativity as an artist and supports her when she wants to enact change in the world that is constantly trying to fix her. Through her love of language, art, and culture, Jade finds her voice and learns to be an agent of change in her own life when and where it matters. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020)

Booktalk #2

Every morning, Jade crosses the city to attend St. Francis, the mostly-white, expensive private school she attends on scholarship. And every afternoon, she heads back to North Portland, the “bad” neighborhood she feels like she has to leave to succeed. Jade is used to taking ugly things and piecing them together to make something beautiful, like the collages she creates out of scraps of paper and fabric. She is used to having to accept any opportunity that comes her way. So when she is selected for “Woman to Woman: a Mentorship Program for African American Girls,” she accepts it, even though she doesn’t think she needs a mentor, especially one like Maxine, who comes from money and doesn’t seem to understand Jade at all. What Jade really wants is to be chosen for the study abroad program, where she can practice Spanish and serve others in a foreign country. But will anyone ever see her as having something to give, instead of something she needs?
Becky Standal, Longview Public Library https://evergreenbookaward.org/)

Booktalk #3

Jade is supposed to be fighting for a way out of a poor neighborhood to save her future. She attends a mostly white private school, takes SAT prep classes, and has just joined women to Women to Women, a program for “at risk” youth. But Jade isn’t in a rush to leave her neighborhood. She doesn’t want to be saved, she doesn’t need to be saved, and
it’s time she explains that to the “helpful” adults in her life. (Connecticut Nutmeg Award https://www.nutmegaward.org/)

SUBJECTS:    Mentoring -- Fiction.
                        High schools -- Fiction.
                        African Americans -- Fiction.