Like Vanessa Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance By thirteen

By thirteen

Critical reception for The Crossover has been positive and the book has received praise from the Washington Post and New York Times

Draper presents “storytelling at its finest” (School Library Journal

slide rules

Like Vanessa Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance By thirteenMiddle graders will laugh and cry with thirteen year old Vanessa Martin as she tries to be like Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America. In this semi autobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with a mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle