Pride by Ibi Zoboi
(Goodreads)
Today's post is in honor of Valentine's day! I figured I would review a new favorite of mine, Pride by Ibi Zoboi. I am going to say it right now, I know that Ibi Zoboi is going to become a household name in YA literature in the next 10 years. This book is a must-have look at a classic story.
Enough of me singing praise for this book. (Hallelujah Chorus) Let's get to the synopsis.
Zuri Benitez is our main girl in this beautiful retelling of a timeless classic. Proud doesn't even begin to describe how Zuri feels about her Haitian- Dominican family and her hood, Bushwick, Brooklyn. Zuri is the kind of girl that will fight anyone who has something bad to say about her family or her neighborhood. Fiercely protective of both, Zuri doesn't really look too far past her street or her overcrowded apartment. Enter in Zuri's four sisters. Janae is home from college for the summer. She is the pride and joy of her parents, who came to America to have a better life. Janae is a quiet, sweet young woman who loves her sisters with her whole heart. then comes the thirteen-year-old twins Kayla and Layla. They cannot get enough of cute boys and believe that they are grown enough to make their own decisions. (z snap) Finally, comes Marisol, a money-conscious hustler that is always looking for ways to make money and start a new side hustle. Everything is shaping up to be an amazing summer as the five fabulous Benitez sisters.
This quote from the very first page of Zoboi's book gives an amazing picture of the struggles those fabulous five are about the encounter.
"It’s a truth universally acknowledged that when rich people move into the hood, where it’s a little bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing they wanna do is clean it up. But it’s not just the junky stuff they’ll get rid of. People can be thrown away too, like last night’s trash left out on the sidewalks or pushed to the edge of wherever all broken things go. What these rich people don’t always know is that broken and forgotten neighborhoods were first built out of love."
Zuri's perfect world is suddenly shaken when a family moves in across the street from her apartment building. The Darcy family bought the house and renovated it, making it stick out like a sore thumb in Bushwick. Not only did they change the house, but they brought two cute sons with them. Enter in Darius and Ainsley. They are both very attractive young black men and Janae falls for Ainsley pretty quick. Zuri goes into protective mama bear mode and tries to keep her sisters from the people she is sure will destroy everything. Zuri is often self-centered in her protection, blind to the wants of those around her.
Zuri soon meets Warren, a smooth-talking brother from the hood. He thinks his smooth-talking will win her over like every other girl in the neighborhood. He could not be more wrong. Zuri doesn't hesitate to put him in his place, but she soon finds herself drawn in by his charm and street smarts.
All of this is what we see on the surface of who Zuri is. Underneath, she is a poet that longs to go to college far from home at Howard University. At an impromptu poetry reading that Zuri attends while touring Howard, she meets up with Darius. Tensions have been rising between the two and they start to admit that they like one another. Zuri begins to realize that class and money don't make a person good or bad. It is the content of their character. Much like the classic, Pride and Prejudice, which this book is fashioned after, Zuri and Darius have their fair share of spats. However, all is resolved when Darius helps Zuri get Layla out of a terrible situation with Warren. In the end, the gentrification of the neighborhood is not stopped and the whole neighborhood is forced to accept that change is a good thing. The Benitez family finds their strength within and not just in a neighborhood. Zuri understands that following your dreams does not mean you love your family less than you love yourself. She is forced to recognize that sometimes our first impressions of people are wrong and we grow by admitting those wrongs.
Student Suggested Age: 14 and up
Warnings: Suggested blackmail, underage drinking, implied sexual pictures
***** SPOILERS *****
I don't have much for this section this time. This book is a fresh look at a timeless classic that any teacher should love to have in their classroom. Many of my African American female students have mentioned that they felt "seen" when reading this book. Too often books paint African American teenage girls as angry, with a nasty attitude. This book flips that idea on its head and shows that they love fiercely and protect the people in their life with everything they have. It also gave a voice to first-generation college students that struggle with the pressures put on them by parents that never had the opportunity to go to school. All in all, a great read that takes a classic and makes it relevant for a new generation.
