Peas and Carrots

Fifteen-year-old Dess, who is white, isn't excited about living with her half-brother's affluent African American foster family after her mother is arrested. Things get worse when Dess meets Hope, the Carters' teenage daughter. The girls immediately dislike each other and compete in every arena. This touching story about different ways to make a family is also a complex look at race, class, and the judgments people make.

Fifteen-year-old Dess isn't excited about living with the Carters after her mother is arrested, but there is a bright spot. Her half-brother Austin has been their foster child since he was a baby, and Dess remembers him as the one bit of joy she had in an abusive home. But Austin calls the strange woman "Mama," and things go from bad to worse when Dess meets Hope, the Carters' teenage daughter. The girls immediately dislike each other and compete in every arena, from school to choir to home, with each girl vying for favorite-sister status. Dess cannot stand the Carters' positivity, their other foster baby Jamaira's debilitating disability, or Hope's naiveté. For her part, Hope finds Dess self-centered, and she's jealous when her dad sticks up for Dess. What could be a run-of-the-mill odd-couple/mean-girl story is nuanced, layered, and rarely overwrought in Davis's capable hands. In alternating chapters (first-person for Dess and third-person for Hope), the ugliest and most vulnerable parts of each character are revealed; neither is a Mary Sue or a villain. Davis does not mince words when voicing Dess's ingrained prejudices when she compares the affluence of the African American Carter family to her own experiences of poverty and homelessness as a white person, and both Dess and Hope are capable of slinging insults that would make Regina George proud. The book could easily be described as a touching story about different ways to make a family, but it's also a complex look at race, class, bodies, and the judgments people make. sarah hannah gomez