After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
After Tupac & D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson is a beautiful book. Woodson continues to not disappoint me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again but I’m a Woodson fan girl.
At the heart of this story is the bond of three twelve-year-old girls. Our unnamed narrator and Neeka are forever changed when D enters their Queens neighborhood and quickly becomes their inseparable third. But while Neeka and our narrator have grown up with each other and know everything about each other, D has a shroud of mystery about her. And in addition to D literally walking into Neeka’s and the narrators life, Neeka’s older brother Tash is in jail for being in he wrong place at the wrong time and her mother is learning to accept that he was gay.
While the girls define their own growing identities and friendships, they latch onto the life and lyrics of hip hop artist Tupac. Tupac’s music gives the girls something to relate too. To be able to take their life experiences and hear them expressed right back to them. Music can speak volumes about the world.
It was hard to read anything about Tupac dying and not think about D. Seems D was right – you listen to Tupac’s songs and you know he’s singing about people like D, about all the kids whose mamas went away, about all the injustice. Brenda throwing away her baby, the cops beating some brother down, the hungry kids, sad skids, kids who got big dreams nobody’s listening to. Like over all that tie and distance he looked right across the bridge into Queens, New York – right into Desiree’s eyes. Strange how he saw her.
He saw her.
There was one thing that had me really surprised and that was the community, the girls and the mother all dismissed Tupac’s unethical actions as unimportant. He was a fantastic role model. Now I have no idea if he was a role model or not. I will thoroughly admit that reading After Tupac and D Foster is my first introduction to Tupac. I know nothing of him, in fact, had never heard of him. So I only know what has been shared in the plot narrative of the book.
But when Tupac is thrown in jail and then later killed, the mother never discussed with her daughter why he was in jail. She dismissed it all to the “system.” Not once did anybody ever question his actions. Was he a victim of the system, not at fault? It felt obvious from reading the book that he wasn’t golden but he was truly golden in the eyes of these girls. What happens when our role models, although they may speak volumes to us in their words, aren’t the best people and are not the role models we should be following? I would have liked to see a bit of exploration in that area.
I found this to be a a parallel to Neeka’s brother, Tash, who was a victim to the system. He was a fantastic role model for these girls. He was trying to find his way in an unjust world and that unjust world put him in jail. Did the girls never question Tupac’s actions simply because their only experience with the system had taught them that good people go to jail? If you’ve read the book, I’d love your insight on this line of thought.
What was outstanding about this novel is the relationship between the three friends. Loved it. The narrators voice was perfect. So true and believable. All these characters were real, breathing people to me. And I love it when that happens. Jacqueline Woodson continues to be at the top of her game and Tupac and D Foster is one in her bibliography that you shouldn’t miss.
Links of interest: Maw Books reviews of Hush, I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This, Show Way, Feathers, If You Come Softly, Behind You, Peace Locomotion, Locomotion, and Miracle’s Boys. My experience meeting Woodson at LA Times Festival of Books. More book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Putnam Young Adult. January 10, 2008
Hardcover, 160 pages. ISBN 0399246541
Source copy: library
After Tupac & D Foster is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.
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Tags: A-D Title, African American, Black History Month reads, coming of age, female author, Fiction, Newbery, Newbery Honor, published 2008, Publisher: Putnam Young Adult
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Jacqueline Woodson is an author I have on my ToBeRead list for this year. I’ve never read her.
on April 7th, 2010 at 5:14 amI know nothing about Tupac (or any rapper, to be honest) but I still think the book sounds great! I have Woodson on my list of authors that I need to try.
on April 7th, 2010 at 6:36 amRap is not my thing, so I don’t know much about the rapper, except for his larger-than-life reputation, which wasn’t very wholesome to say the least. I do LOVE Woodson (thanks to you and Amy) and am always amazed at how much thought, complexity and emotion she can pack in just 100 orf 150 pages.
on April 7th, 2010 at 8:09 amI love Tupac! If anything, listen to his song Changes.
I just read my first Jacqueline Woodson book recently — “Peace, Locomotion” and cannot wait to check out her other books, including After Tupac & D Foster.
on April 7th, 2010 at 8:44 amI know a little about Tupac, but not a lot, so take what I have to say knowing that. I watched the VH1 documentary about Tupac right before reading this book and he really was revolutionary in a lot of ways and I think that for some people, that was enough. It didn’t matter that eventually he did things that were wrong — it was the system that lead him to that. It didn’t matter that he was put in jail, like you said that was the system. He was the first person who was really talking about what it was like to live in the streets in such a way that people could relate to it and understand it. He was a poet, an actor, a writer and an activist, outside of just being a rapper. Then some really terrible things happened to him, including being beaten by police in Oakland for jaywalking. Then he was shot. Those things caused him to be very suspicious of police and any authority. Does that excuse any of his actions? Not in my book. But did it for a lot of people? Absolutely. That would be my guess. People would believe anything he said because he was the only one who was being honest with them. I think that what you said is pretty much spot-on. Because they had seen people unjustly imprisoned and mistreated, it was much easier to believe Tupac when he said that was the case. Would I like to believe that he really was innocent of the things he did? Sure, but it isn’t likely. And even if he is innocent, it doesn’t excuse him of the things he did do, like promoting gun and gang violence. All that being said, he did do some great things and inspired a lot of people. A person can be a good artist and not necessarily a good person. I think Tupac started out on the right track, acting as a voice for the voiceless, but eventually the violence and lavishness of the lifestyle caught up to him.
So I hope that helps a little, and I hope that if there’s anyone out there who knows more about Tupac, to correct me if anything I have said here is incorrect!
on April 8th, 2010 at 7:27 amJust added this to my TBR list…looking forward to it.
on April 8th, 2010 at 9:20 amWill add it to my list,thanks!
on April 8th, 2010 at 10:20 am