This Side of Home

From New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award-winning author Renee
Watson comes a captivating and poignant coming-of-age urban novel about sisters, friends, and what it means to embrace change.

Maya
Younger and her identical twin sister, Nikki, have always agreed on the important things. Friends. Boys. School. They even plan to attend the same historically African American college. But nothing can always remain the same.

As
their Portland neighborhood goes from rough-and-tumble to
up-and-coming, Maya feels her connection to Nikki and their community
slipping away. Nikki spends more time at trendy coffee shops than
backyard barbecues, and their new high school principal is more
committed to erasing the neighborhood’s ghetto reputation than
honoring its history. Home doesn’t feel like home anymore. As Maya
struggles to hold on to her black heritage, she begins to wonder with
whom–or where–she belongs. Does growing up have to mean growing apart?