Spellbound - Softcover

McDonald, Janet

3.72

225 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312603886 ISBN 13: 9780312603885

Publisher: Square Fish, 2011

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Raven Jefferson never expected she’d be a mother at sixteen like her best friend, Aisha. Now she’s stuck being just another high school dropout, a project girl with few prospects. Or maybe not; Raven does have ambition. Still, when is she going to find the time to finish school? All her time is spent looking for a job or taking care of her son, Smokey. Then her older sister, Dell, tells her about a spelling bee that promises the winner a full college scholarship. But spelling? There isn’t a subject she’s worse at! Yet Raven is fiercely determined to find a way to get her life back on track. So she starts memorizing words. There’s no reason not to try. . . .

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Review:

“McDonald uses a chorus of highly authentic, lively young voices to convey heartbreaks and dreams reverberating in a Brooklyn ghetto... [Raven’s] ability to turn her life around defies the notion that girls like her and Aisha are stuck on a dead-end street.”
Publisher’s Weekly

“One of the best of the many recent stories about teens in the city projects, this first novel is read-aloud funny, even as it tells the harsh truth about how hard it is to break free... Best of all, [McDonald] humanizes the individual people behind the stereotype of poor people who are ‘project trash.’”
Booklist, starred review

“So real. So funny. So inspiring. Even if you can't relate to being a single mom in the projects (which I can cause I am) you'll be laughing so loud and rooting so hard that you'll forget you're not. This is my favorite book of all the teenage books I've read.”
amazon.com reader review

From the Back Cover:

'Raven flipped the baby back onto his stomach for powdering and back over again for diapering before the white dust had even settled on his brown, bowed legs. It was one of the few things she felt she did really well...'

One stupid night with Jesse had changed Raven's life
for ever – now what does she have:
a baby
no qualifications
no job

Her best friend, Aisha, just chills out, takes life as it comes, but Raven wants more – a job, college, something! But what chance has she got, especially where she comes from?
Who'd want to believe in someone from New York's Housing Projects? Then her sister comes up with a great idea: win the spelling competition, and Raven could get a scholarship to college. One problem – spelling is Raven's worst subject...ever.

'...heartbreaks and dreams in a Brooklyn ghetto'
'Publisher's Weekly'

'...read-aloud funny, even as it tells the harsh truth about how hard it is to break free'
'Booklist' starred review

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