A review by emdoux
Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth
4.0
LPLD 5th societal issues booktalk
Jarrett’s mom is a foster mom – not his – but sometimes, it seems like every other kid in the world. Usually she takes in abused babies, nursing them back to health before they are sent along in the System. Babies, Jarrett could handle. He understood. But when his mom brings home a baby with an older brother attached – just older than Jarrett himself – he thinks she’s gone too far.
It’s ridiculous that everyone expects Jarrett to just drop everything in his life and become best friends with this new kid, Kevon. To share his room, his friends, his activities. Jarrett has enough going on right now – he’s nearly failing out of summer school and going to have to repeat a grade, he might be getting a stepdad finally, and he and his best friend are working on producing a movie together. He’s got no time for Kevon as a friend, OR as a brother.
Jarrett’s mom says that Kevon’s only going to stay for a day – but that quickly turns into a week, and before Jarrett knows it, his mom’s enrolling Kevon in school – it looks like he’s going to stay for a while. Jarrett knows he has to do something about Kevon… but what can he do? Soon he and Kevon are getting into fights, Kevon is stealing, and things are unraveling in Jarrett’s household faster than he can realize.
Kinda Like Brothers isn’t a friends and family story that minces words and has a perfectly happy ending – just like real life. There aren’t always “happily ever afters” in the foster system, or for minority children. But maybe somehow, Jarrett and Kevon will work it out.
Jarrett’s mom is a foster mom – not his – but sometimes, it seems like every other kid in the world. Usually she takes in abused babies, nursing them back to health before they are sent along in the System. Babies, Jarrett could handle. He understood. But when his mom brings home a baby with an older brother attached – just older than Jarrett himself – he thinks she’s gone too far.
It’s ridiculous that everyone expects Jarrett to just drop everything in his life and become best friends with this new kid, Kevon. To share his room, his friends, his activities. Jarrett has enough going on right now – he’s nearly failing out of summer school and going to have to repeat a grade, he might be getting a stepdad finally, and he and his best friend are working on producing a movie together. He’s got no time for Kevon as a friend, OR as a brother.
Jarrett’s mom says that Kevon’s only going to stay for a day – but that quickly turns into a week, and before Jarrett knows it, his mom’s enrolling Kevon in school – it looks like he’s going to stay for a while. Jarrett knows he has to do something about Kevon… but what can he do? Soon he and Kevon are getting into fights, Kevon is stealing, and things are unraveling in Jarrett’s household faster than he can realize.
Kinda Like Brothers isn’t a friends and family story that minces words and has a perfectly happy ending – just like real life. There aren’t always “happily ever afters” in the foster system, or for minority children. But maybe somehow, Jarrett and Kevon will work it out.