Begging for Change - Hardcover

Flake, Sharon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078680601X ISBN 13: 9780786806010

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2003

Synopsis

H "Flake's strength . . . lies in developing genuine, believable adults and children."-BCCB (starred review) H "Flake's charged, infectious dialogue will sweep readers through the first-person story."-Booklist (starred review) Fourteen-year-old Raspberry Hill is still struggling to find security in her life. More than anything, she wants a father who will love and protect her, like Zora's dad. When her mother is attacked, Raspberry does the unthinkable: she steals money from Zora, her best friend. It's only when her thieving, drug-addicted father returns that Raspberry begins to wonder whether betraying Zora will cost her more than she can ever repay. Is Raspberry destined to follow in her father's footsteps? Raspberry is certain...something's got to change.

About this title

About the Author

Sharon G. Flake won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for her first novel The Skin I'm In and is a two-time Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book winner. Belived by children and adults, critics and booksellers, librarians and teachers, she is the author of six books for yourng adults that have sold more than half a million copies. The mother of a college-age daughter, Flake writes full time from her home in Pitsburgh.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. "Would you be all right if your mother got hit in the head with a pipe and your father was high as a kite?" In this sequel to Money Hungry (2001) Raspberry Hill's mother is in the hospital after being attacked by a neighborhood teenage girl, and Raspberry's father, homeless and addicted to drugs, resurfaces. Terrified that she and her mother may land back on the streets, Raspberry steals money from a friend. Is she turning into her father? Flake's charged, infectious dialogue will sweep readers through the first-person story as Raspberry describes her fears and moral quandaries; her new romance; her fierce love for her mother; and her powerful, conflicted feelings about her dad. Although vivid images of urban poverty, violence, and drug addiction clearly illustrate why Raspberry is so afraid, Flake never sensationalizes. The identity struggles of some of Raspberry's biracial friends threaten, at times, to distract from the main story, but Flake manages ultimately to balance her many plots and blend them into a hopeful novel that encourages readers to share Raspberry's questions: Can money buy security? How do you forgive those who have hurt you? Does violence ever stop rippling through a community once it begins? Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 078680601X
• ISBN 13: 9780786806010
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240