My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich
Ibi Zoboi
National Book Award-finalist Ibi Zoboi makes her middle-grade debut with an unforgettable character: Ebony-Grace Norfleet, the sci-fi-obsessed granddaughter of one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA. Set in Harlem in the early days of hip-hop, My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich is a moving and hilarious story of girl finding a place and a voice in a world that's changing at warp speed. In the summer of 1984, 12-year-old Ebony-Grace Norfleet makes the trip from Huntsville, Alabama, to Harlem, where she'll spend a few weeks with her father while her mother deals with some trouble that's arisen for Ebony-Grace's beloved grandfather, Jeremiah. Jeremiah Norfleet is a bit of a celebrity in Huntsville, where he was one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA two decades earlier. And ever since his granddaughter came to live with him when she was little, he's nurtured her love of all things outer space and science fiction--especially Star Wars and Star Trek, both of which she's watched dozens of time on Grandaddady's Betamax machine. So even as Ebony-Grace struggled to make friends among her peers, she could always rely on her grandfather and the imaginary worlds they created together. In Harlem, however, she faces a whole new challenge. Harlem in 1984 is an exciting and terrifying place for a sheltered girl from Hunstville, and her first instinct is to retreat into her imagination. But soon 126th Street begins to reveal that it has more in common with her beloved sci-fi adventures than she ever thought possible, and by summer's end, Ebony-Grace discovers that gritty and graffitied Harlem has a place for a girl whose eyes are always on the stars. Zoboi's middle-grade debut sets an utterly captivating character in a meticulously researched 1980s Harlem for a novel that will delight and inspire.
Publication Year: 2019
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0It hasn't been confirmed by the author that the main character is supposed to be autistic, but as an autistic, I identify with a lot of the ways her mind works. But for goodness sake, girl, learn to mask! It was nice to see someone kind of like me in a book, but it was also really depressing to see her treated the way she is, not just by the jerk kids on the block (I kind of expect kids to be jerks), but by every stinking adult in her life. It's not that weird for a 12 year old to be obsessed with comics and tv shows. Although the way E-Grace refuses to put away her imaginary world to have conversation on other topics is annoying, most 12 year olds are annoying, and her parents act as if it would be totally okay for her to be obsessed with something as long as it was a "normal" something like rap or skipping rope. Basically, I didn't need more reason to hate ableist sexists, but this book still gave it to me. Also I really wanted to have it more clearly told what the grandpa had done, because I never could figure it out. He had affairs? What does that have to do with legal trouble, and what do either of those have to do with rumors in the newspaper? I did really like comparing masking to keeping the Prime Directive, though.
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