S(Kin)

Gr 7 Up–Turpin and Miles, both aural Zoboi veterans, combine their resonating narrations in this story about two teens on the verge of transformative self-discovery. Aurally adapting the format of Zoboi’s novel-in-verse is an intricate intertwining, then overlapping, tracking the interconnectedness between 15-year-old Marisol (Miles, who cues older than 15 and performs with a lyrical Caribbean accent) and 17-year-old Genevieve (Turpin alternates both Brooklyn teenage confidence and angst). Marisol and her mother Lourdes are undocumented Haitian immigrants, in need of home and work. Genevieve is the privileged daughter of a white professor and white stepmother who’s recently given birth to twins. When she’s most needed, Lourdes appears as the new nanny, bringing much needed comfort to the difficult babies. Marisol and Genevieve’s fateful meeting and eventual recognition are reflected in chapter headings that become shifting portmanteaus of their conjoined names, revealing their identities as fiery soul-sucking, blood-feasting soucouyants.