Home and Away

August 1, 2018

Gr 10 Up-Tasia Quirk is a young Black woman who has everything that she could possibly want. A wealthy family, supportive friends, and a spot as the only girl on her football team at a private high school. Nothing could go wrong, until she catches her mom putting away a box that contains newspaper clippings, copies of her birth certificate, and a Polaroid of her mom and a white man. Her mom confesses that Tasia is biracial and her biological father is white. The teen realizes that everything she knew about her childhood is a lie. She goes on a quest to find out the truth about the mysterious box and where she fits. Montgomery explores the challenges of being biracial. Throughout, readers will cheer for Tasia as she faces difficult situations and realizes how they don't determine her end result. The consistently strong writing and overall story arc will engage teens. VERDICT Fans of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon will enjoy this gripping story of the love, family, and forgiveness.-Ericka Greer, Ouachita Parish Public Library, Monroe, LA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2018
Eighteen-year-old Tasia struggles with uncertainty around identity and family in Montgomery's debut novel.Tasia Lynn Quirk is certain she knows exactly who she is--the daughter of a loving, financially well-off family, a confident and successful black private school senior, a kick-ass, and the only girl on her high school's football team. The arrival of a mysterious box makes her solid world fly apart when she discovers that her biological father is not the black man who raised her but a white man named Merrick. Reeling from the betrayal and violent shift in her identity, Taze impulsively seeks out Merrick and his family as she tries to navigate the new chaos of her life. Montgomery's thoughtful craft is driven by immediacy and tension and grounded in emotional authenticity. The depth of 21st-century young adult complexity is effortlessly inscribed in Taze's character, including the frustrations and exhilaration of football, the complicated intensity of a new romantic relationship with a bisexual boy, the negotiation of the intersecting tensions of racism, colorism, sexism, and classism, and the difficult path to family healing. The juxtaposition of Taze's exploration of her black biracial identity alongside the unfettered diversity of identity and experiences among the supporting cast goes beyond refreshing all the way to restorative for readers weary of the search for intersectional mirrors.A love letter to the intricacies of family and multitudinous black girlhood. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2018
Grades 10-1 Tasia Quirk's enviable life?friends, rich parents, big house, a spot on her private school's football team?starts to crack when she discovers her mother hiding a box containing pictures and newspaper clippings spanning almost all of Tasia's 18 years. Most incriminating is a photo of her mother cozied up to a white man who, it turns out, is her biological father, not the black man her mother is married to. Suddenly, she has to reevaluate everything she thought was true about herself, and in the process, get to know the family she never knew she had. Debut author Montgomery pulls no punches with dynamic, engaging Tasia, whose sharp, introspective first-person narrative gives readers deep insight into how she processes the shift in her reality, not just the realization that she has a white father, which has a real bearing on her racial identity, but how she defines family in general. This smart, compassionate coming-of-age story about a sensitive, talented black girl in the midst of pivotal growth is a great pick for fans of Brandy Colbert.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)