Free Girls

Recently released from a juvenile detention center, Black 16-year-old Jasmine struggles to adjust to her family’s newly affluent lifestyle in an uneven contemporary drama, McCallum’s debut. Jasmine’s overprotective mother, who recently remarried, is determined that the family move on from the teen’s past at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls. She even goes so far as to lie to Jasmine’s new stepfamily about the truth surrounding her year away and forbids Jasmine from contacting her former friends. Jasmine chafes against the deception and her mother’s strict rules, which causes tension within the household, particularly between Jasmine and stepsister Kayla. Caught between a past she is encouraged to forget and a present that refuses to accept her, Jasmine struggles to maintain balance, especially when an old flame from the center reenters her life, threatening to upend the fragile stability she’s trying to build. Occasional contradictions between character dialogue and actions somewhat undermine the impact of overarching conversations about the juvenile justice system. Still, restrained prose depicts Jasmine as a sympathetic protagonist, and readers will find it easy to root for her to find her place and voice in this straightforward coming-of-age portrait. Ages 12–up. (July)