Every Time a Rainbow Dies

by Rita Williams-Garcia
PRMS hardcover 166 pages
genre: YA realistic fiction

I picked up this book because a student really liked another book by Williams-Garcia. (Diamondland, which is nigh impossible to find . . . due to Scholastic using it in a basal reader??? I've *never* had such a hard time finding a book! 64 page novella . . . in a library in Missouri and for over $100 on any book-selling site with used books. Really?!? I'm so tempted to write to the author and ask if she has any extra copies for my kiddo.)

Williams-Garcia wasn't really on my radar until my advisee's reading teacher paraprofessional mentioned the above reponse. The student in question struggles to read and doesn't like it . . . but raved about Diamondland! (The excerpt provided in the Scholastic reader, anyhow.) So I read this book.

And I'm not really sure what to do with it. The jacket blurb says, "Ever since the night he found her battered and raped, in the alley near his home, Thulani has not been able to think about anything but Ysa." This is most definitely a book for more mature readers, but it has grief, family relationships, identity, violence, sexuality, and so much more!

Page 15 - "Spending his days on his rooftop did not make him ignorant of the streets below. He had seen enough to know how to carry himself and was determined to pass without being stopped by cops looking for a suspect." This makes me so sad! For black teenagers, working at (and even being aware of) *not* appearing suspicious is part of "normal" life! Thulani is a wonderful young man, raising pigeons and dealing with the loss of his mother when he was 13. But the author drops this nugget in . . . while he is trying to connect with Ysa, he is also aware of not seeming suspicious.

Page 149 - I was so upset when I read this! (Don't want to put a spoiler here.) The author is brilliant at getting you inside Thulani's head and life so that you care about what he cares about. I am so glad I read this book, but it is definitely not for my "average" middle school reader. I'm not going to remove it from the shelf, but I may need to warn Belle that some of the books are *quite* mature.