14 must-read new YA releases to beat the August heat
By Lacy Baugher
August 2021 release: Sugar Town Queens – Malia Nunn
From LA Times Book Prize Award Winner and Edgar Award Nominee Malla Nunn comes Sugar Town Queens, an intimate portrait of a family divided and the bonds that knit our communities. It tells the story of a South African teen who must unravel the mysteries of her own past after a shocking discovery about her mother – and her own history.
Mixed-race Amandla and her mother Annalisa don’t live in the worst section of their South African township, but there are days where it feels as though they’re just scraping by. Her mother’s irregular “episodes” and aggressive secrecy certainly aren’t helping, and when Annalisa returns from a trip badly shaken and with a mysteriously large amount of cash in her purse, Amandla decides to do investigate.
With the help of her friends Lil Bit and Goodness, Amandla decides to investigate an address scribbled on a piece of paper alongside the cash, a journey that will challenge her preconceived notions about both who she is and where she comes from.
A story of race, class, the family you’re related to and the family you choose, The Sugar Town Queens is one of the most surprising and original entries on this month’s list.
The official synopsis has more details about the story.
"When Amandla wakes up on her fifteenth birthday she knows it’s going to be one of her mother’s difficult days. Her mother has had another vision. If Amandla wears a blue sheet her mother has loosely stitched as a dress and styles her normally braided hair in a halo around her head, Amandla’s father will come home. Amandla’s mother, Annalisa, always speaks of her father as if he was the prince of a fairytale, but in truth he’s been gone since before Amandla was born and even Annalisa’s memory of him is hazy. In fact many of Annalisa’s memories from before Amandla was born are hazy. It’s just one of the many reasons people in Sugar Town give Annalisa and Amandla strange looks–that and the fact her mother is white and Amandla is brown. But when Amandla finds a mysterious address in the bottom of her mother’s handbag along with a large amount of cash, she decides it’s finally time to get answers about her mother’s life. But what she discovers will change the shape and size of her family forever."
Sugar Town Queens is available on August 3.