Piecing Me Together

Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner
New York Times bestseller
"Timely and timeless." -Jacqueline Woodson
"Important and deeply moving." -John Green

Bestselling and award-winning author Renée Watson offers a powerful story about a girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it's trying to break her.

Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she's ever going to succeed. Her mother tells her to take advantage of every opportunity that comes her way. And Jade has: every day she rides the bus to the private school where she feels like an outsider, but where she has plenty of opportunities. But some opportunities she doesn't really welcome, like an invitation to join a mentorship program for "at-risk" girls. Just because her mentor is Black and graduated from the same high school doesn't mean she understands where Jade is coming from. She's tired of being singled out as someone who needs help, someone people want to fix. Jade wants to speak, to create, to express her joys and sorrows, her pain and her hope. Maybe there are some things she could show other women about understanding the world and finding ways to be real, to make a difference.

NPR's Best Books
A New York Public Library Best Teen Book of the Year
Chicago Public Library's Best Books
A School Library Journal Best Book
Kirkus Reviews' Best Teen Books
Josette Frank Award Winner

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288 pages

Average rating: 8.21

14 RATINGS

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D. Roden

Apr 21, 2024

5/10 stars

“When I learned the Spanish word for (succeed,) I thought it was kind of ironic that the word (exit) is embedded in it. Like the universe was telling me that in order for me to make something of this life, I’d have to leave home, my neighborhood, my friends.” pg. 2 What I liked: I thought Jade was a fully developed and realistic young teenager character. She was smart, not overtly sexual or crude and I thought most of the circumstances she faced were realistic. I loved the community aspect of this novel, and I loved the mentorship program that was at the center of the story. I wish the church discipled their own like the world does. We have lost that in our modern living I think.

Briars Books

Jul 01, 2022

9/10 stars

I hate the term “at risk youth”. Everything about the label makes me teeth grind much in the same way it did for Jade. Just because the circumstances of north labeled black, single family households “poor”, that should not have become synonymous with broken. Renee Watson very artfully utilizes, prose, art, and poetic semantics to pose several important questions. Why does poor equate lack of cultural growth opportunity? Who decides and defines what opportunity should look like? How should one balance an all black home life with a primarily white education? How even in conversations with other black women, it’s hard to find “safe spaces”. . . I love the complexity and the layering of each character presented and would definitely recommend adding it to your TBR!

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