Janet McDonald (1953-2007) is the author of the adult memoir Project Girl. She is the author of three books set in the Brooklyn projects: Chill Wind, for which she received the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; Spellbound, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Twists and Turns, an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in Paris, France.
"McDonald writes with such honesty, wit, and insight that you want to quote from every page and read much of this story aloud to share the laughter and anguish, failure and hope, fury and tenderness, of black project girl Aisha Ingram . . . The truth of the characters and their talk and the energy of the neighborhood . . . will grab readers from everywhere." --Starred, Booklist "The language is real and believable and evokes life in an urban setting. Determination, familial love, and courage are the themes examined." --School Library Journal "McDonald deserves kudos for her gritty, unsentimental portrait of day-to-day life in the projects." --Kirkus Reviews
Returning to territory first explored in Spellbound, McDonald here shifts her focus to Aisha, the high school dropout who was pregnant with one child already. The author once again uses a third-person narration to create Aisha's authentic voice and unique perspective, but the novel's solutions ultimately seem too simple. Aisha, now 19, has reached her five-year lifetime limit for receiving welfare and must enter workfare or "get kicked to the curb." Determined not to do any of the "slave jobs" she's been offered, she searches for another solution, such as pretending to be mentally ill or trying to convince her kids' father to marry her. She eventually realizes there aren't any "lucky breaks around the bend for a project girl on welfare with no schooling," and she goes to work patrolling the subway. Conveniently, she gets chosen to be in commercials. Her mother quits drinking, and this, coupled with her sudden bonding with her sister, add to the improbable ending. Readers get a strong sense of Aisha's world-the projects, her battles with the welfare system, her friends and their families-and the ribbing between friends reads genuine. But, in the end, with things coming so easily to Aisha, readers will be left wondering what she has learned along the way. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
"McDonald writes with such honesty, wit, and insight that you want to quote from every page and read much of this story aloud to share the laughter and anguish, failure and hope, fury and tenderness, of black project girl Aisha Ingram . . . The truth of the characters and their talk and the energy of the neighborhood . . . will grab readers from everywhere." --Starred, Booklist "The language is real and believable and evokes life in an urban setting. Determination, familial love, and courage are the themes examined." --School Library Journal "McDonald deserves kudos for her gritty, unsentimental portrait of day-to-day life in the projects." --Kirkus Reviews
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