DEAL WITH IT! Powerful Words from Smart, Young Women

by The Extended Day Girls
With Stacey Shubitz and Christina L. Rodriguez

Deal With It! is a very unique nonfiction book filled with poems, essays by ten 5th grade girls and their two teachers who live in the Bronx and Manhattan. Read the different point of views on various subjects from siblings to pets to growing up. My favorite section of the book was at the beginning's "Where We're From" poems. Inspired by the poems, I even wrote one of my own in the same style. Here's one written by Allandra Washington:

Where I'm From

I am from clothes
from Denim Girl and white & blue colors.
I am from the huge kitchen,
from the Christmas Pearl,
still holding in the metal cage chain
it sparkles
as I look.

I am from cooking and fun,
from Washington and Henderson.
I am from make-your-bed-before-8:00-p.m. and
reach-for-the-stars-and-you'll-become-one.

I'm from Harlem,
the sun shining on my window.
From the peace
the soul
and the heart.

I am from the album of our family life.
I am from the love of my parents and
many cousins and friends.
I am from the life and the
greatness of it.

This book provides honest, sometimes funny and sometimes heartwrenching insights into the day-to-day life and thoughts of these girls. It makes for an interesting and compelling read.