A wonderful middle grade novel, recommended for any library. Sometimes you have to look back to see the way ahead. Wes grows up before our eyes as he leverages his problem solving skills and intimate knowledge of his community in the fight to save his neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Mya is navigating being new in a more upscale (and whiter) neighborhood and Kari and his family are at risk of losing their home. While Wes loves his friends, he doesn’t really understand the big deal with gentrification until it comes for his neighborhood, Kensington Oaks. Real estate developers have gentrified nearby neighborhoods, including ones where his friends Kari and Mya live.
The neighborhood is changing around them. Giles Summary About the author About the narrator 'This book made me want to step aside, hand over the mic, and listen to Wes. He is about to start 6th grade, and he’d rather be playing video games and being a kid than going to protests with his activist mom. Giles 28.00 USD Get for 14.99 with membership Add to cart Length 5 hours 8 minutes Language English Narrators Genesis Oliver & Chrystal D. Wes Henderson is cool : well-dressed and well-liked. Even as Wes realizes change itself-in lives, in communities–is inevitable, the results of his research efforts and the work of Save Our City have a welcome yet realistic impact, setting some limits on the extent to which his neighborhood can be transformed.Published by Random House Books for Young Readers on January 26, 2021 I think I might read it aloud to my fifth graders in the spring Affiliate link to purchase this book: First. Wes, his family members, friends, neighbors, and others are distinct, dynamic characters in this story in which the theme of change resonates throughout: Change in the community impacts the lives of Wes and his friends and neighbors changes in their lives impacts their friendships.
Soon, however, he’s determined to do more, connecting with the leader of a local group called “Save Our City” while tying what’s happening in his community to a social justice research project at school. Wes, who has been dragged along to more than one protest by his mom, and has a friend recently displaced by another development who is now homeless, wants to remind his neighbors of how much they have in common and works with his friends to organize a block party. It creates a rift in their neighborhood between those who feel they can’t afford to say no and those who want homeowners to unite against taking the offers. When his neighborhood is targeted by a developer making attractive offers to buy people’s homes, some, like his best friend’s family, find it hard to resist. Sixth grader Wes Henderson lives in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Kensington Oaks.
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