So Done

by Paula Chase

Overview

When best friends Tai and Mila are reunited after a summer apart, their friendship threatens to combust from the pressure of secrets, middle school, and the looming dance auditions for a new talented-and-gifted program.

Fans of Renée Watson’s Piecing Me Together will love this memorable story about a complex friendship between two very different African American girls—and the importance of speaking up.

Jamila Phillips and Tai Johnson have been inseparable since they were toddlers, having grown up across the street from each other in Pirates Cove, a low-income housing project. As summer comes to an end, Tai can’t wait for Mila to return from spending a month with her aunt in the suburbs. But both girls are grappling with secrets, and when Mila returns she’s more focused on her upcoming dance auditions than hanging out with Tai.

Paula Chase explores complex issues that affect many young teens, and So Done offers a powerful message about speaking up. Full of ballet, basketball, family, and daily life in Pirates Cove, this memorable novel is for fans of Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish and Jason Reynolds’s Ghost.

"Chase vividly conjures the triumphs, tensions, and worries percolating in the girls’ low-income neighborhood." (Publishers Weekly, "An Anti-Racist Children's and YA Reading List")

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538552209
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Paula Chase is the cofounder of The Brown Bookshelf, a site designed to increase awareness of African American voices writing for young readers. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland. Her novels include the acclaimed So Done and its companion, Dough Boys. www.paulachasehyman.com

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/25/2018
Growing up together in a housing project, 13-year-olds Tai and Mila are longtime best friends, but they couldn’t be more opposite. Sassy Tai thrives on the neighborhood’s energy, while quiet, reserved Mila can’t wait to get out. Their differences increase after Mila spends the summer in the suburbs with her aunt and older sister; there, she feels free, unburdened of a horrible secret that makes her afraid to go to Tai’s house. When she returns home, Tai senses that something in Mila has changed, and it causes a rift—it seems that the only things that unite them now are their love of dance and the upcoming audition for a program designed for fine arts students. Through successfully rendered dialogue, Chase (the Del Rio Bay Clique series) vividly conjures the triumphs, tensions, and worries percolating in the girls’ low-income neighborhood. Tai’s exuberance forms an effective foil to Mila’s internal turmoil, and the building anticipation about who will be chosen for the program and whether Mila will divulge her secret will keep readers turning pages. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

A beautifully written and achingly realistic portrayal of the growing pains even the best friendships often must endure. Tai and Mila’s journey felt as real and messy and ultimately hopeful as all true friendships are.” — - Jo Knowles, award-winning author of See You At Harry’s, Still A work In Progress and the forthcoming Where the Heart Is (2019)

“Chase vividly conjures the triumphs, tensions, and worries percolating in the girls’ low-income neighborhood. Tai’s exuberance forms an effective foil to Mila’s internal turmoil, and the building anticipation about who will be chosen for the program and whether Mila will divulge her secret will keep readers turning pages.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Themes of friendship, trust, loyalty, and family are examined with a sharp eye... Characterization is nuanced and skillfully layered...A pitch-perfect look at changing adolescent relationships and resilience.” — School Library Journal (starred review)

“The protagonists tell their stories in memorable voices that ring true to their characters. ...both Mila and Tai are young women that readers will root for.” — The Horn Book

“An honest coming-of-age tale with two different girls dealing with real issues, crushes, and finding themselves …Chase pulls no punches when it comes to emotional honesty… The dual-perspective narrative tackles serious subjects through an adolescent lens” — ALA Booklist

“Chase presents genuine characters whose interactions are authentic...So Done excellently embodies the experience of young, black girls and the stress and triumphs of striving to be an individual in a community that respects sticking together above all else.” — Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

An honest coming-of-age tale with two different girls dealing with real issues, crushes, and finding themselves …Chase pulls no punches when it comes to emotional honesty… The dual-perspective narrative tackles serious subjects through an adolescent lens

ALA Booklist

The protagonists tell their stories in memorable voices that ring true to their characters. ...both Mila and Tai are young women that readers will root for.

The Horn Book

Chase presents genuine characters whose interactions are authentic...So Done excellently embodies the experience of young, black girls and the stress and triumphs of striving to be an individual in a community that respects sticking together above all else.

Shelf Awareness

A beautifully written and achingly realistic portrayal of the growing pains even the best friendships often must endure. Tai and Mila’s journey felt as real and messy and ultimately hopeful as all true friendships are.

award-winning author of See You At Harry̵ Jo Knowles

A beautifully written and achingly realistic portrayal of the growing pains even the best friendships often must endure. Tai and Mila’s journey felt as real and messy and ultimately hopeful as all true friendships are.

award-winning author of See You At Harry̵  Jo Knowles

★ 09/01/2018
Gr 5–8—In this story set during the last few weeks of summer between seventh and eighth grade in the housing project of Pirate's Cove, TX, themes of friendship, trust, loyalty, and family are examined with a sharp eye. Tai cannot wait until her best friend Bean gets back from "the woods" where she's been staying with her aunt. Life in the Cove isn't the same without her. When Bean comes back, she seems different. She wants to be called Jamila or Mila, not Bean, even by Tai. She seems distant and doesn't want to come over to Tai's house anymore. Meanwhile, the big news in the Cove is that auditions for a new talented-and-gifted dance program are being held, but Tai isn't as excited about the auditions as her friends. Characterization is nuanced and skillfully layered, especially in the depiction of the relationships between the girls, their caregivers, and their circle of friends. Chase gives hints as to why Mila is so uncomfortable in Tai's home but takes her time with the reveal. Readers, and eventually Tai, learn that Tai's father was verbally and physically inappropriate with Mila. Tai struggles with this knowledge, her silence and complacency, and how to repair her relationship with Mila. VERDICT A pitch-perfect look at changing adolescent relationships and resilience.—Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York

School Library Journal

Tai and Mila have always been best friends, but differing interests threaten to break them apart in the weeks leading up to the start of eighth grade. Though the audiobook alternates viewpoints between the two girls, Bahni Turpin uses the same narrative voice throughout. Tai’s and Mila’s perspectives are so different that listeners won’t be confused by the consistency in narrative voice; they’ll instead be delighted by Turpin’s skill in crafting individual speaking voices for each character. Superficially, this seems like a story about cliques and crushes. But Chase takes character development to a deeper level, particularly in demonstrating the girls’ approaches to coping with a shared trauma. Turpin flawlessly balances gravity in narrating difficult scenes with playfulness when the girls are with their friends. S.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2018 - AudioFile

Tai and Mila have always been best friends, but differing interests threaten to break them apart in the weeks leading up to the start of eighth grade. Though the audiobook alternates viewpoints between the two girls, Bahni Turpin uses the same narrative voice throughout. Tai’s and Mila’s perspectives are so different that listeners won’t be confused by the consistency in narrative voice; they’ll instead be delighted by Turpin’s skill in crafting individual speaking voices for each character. Superficially, this seems like a story about cliques and crushes. But Chase takes character development to a deeper level, particularly in demonstrating the girls’ approaches to coping with a shared trauma. Turpin flawlessly balances gravity in narrating difficult scenes with playfulness when the girls are with their friends. S.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2018 - AudioFile

★ 2018-05-14
Metai Johnson and Jamila Phillips have been inseparable since they were toddlers, but now the pressures of hard secrets and new friends threaten to sever their friendship in the wake of a summer apart. The chapters alternate between the perspectives of Mila and Tai, allowing each distinctive character an authentic and complex voice as they navigate difficult issues facing many American preteens. Mila (also known as Bean, but she'd just as soon not be) is just returning from a summer at Aunt Jacq's in The Woods, away from her less-affluent neighborhood, the Cove. Tai can't wait to see her, especially as she's grown close with her crush, Roland, and needs her best friend to share the rush. Yet as they reunite, both friends begin to realize that something is tangibly different—and the roots of this difference may be in an uncomfortable incident that took place the previous April at Tai's. The emerging conflict will surely come to a head as they both prepare for the high-stakes audition for the local talented-and-gifted arts program, where they hope to continue to develop themselves as dancers and to stay away from the dangerous pull of street life. The author weaves in a keen sense of black youth culture, including emoji-filled text messages, fly hairstyles, and beloved nicknames that won't go away, while powerful, flowing use of African-American Vernacular English gives the novel warmth, spirit, and familiarity.Chase's middle-grade debut dazzles in its exploration of the complicated lives of two very different young black girls in language that will meet its primary audience of black girl readers in their hearts. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews