Chill Wind

McDonald, Janet. (2002). Chill Wind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Annotation: Nineteen-year-old Aisha receives a letter in the mail. This is not good news – she’s just about at the point where she’s been on welfare with her two young kids for five years and they’re going to terminate her benefits. Aisha has to figure out what to do now that she’s got two little mouths to feed, and a mother who’s not going to let her live for free.

Justification for Rejection: This book had no redeeming features. It did not come back around. You see Aisha struggle through not knowing what to do now that her benefits are up, but she gets off too easy. It was all too simple; she really didn’t have to work to get herself somewhere. It was not realistic and not even right.

Maybe I should not be so negative – I have not been in her place in life. Aisha grew up in the projects in Brooklyn, New York, and I’m sure that’s where a lot of her ideas and values about life come from.

I did not at all like that she just got off so easy. She had to go work for like less than a total of one day and then went off on her big commercial and modeling career. This is not the way that real life works and there are some of us who work out butts off day in and day out! I think this book will totally turn off teens that are in the work force. I think there is a small group of people this book may appeal to, but not enough to nominate it for an award.

Genre: Coming of Age/Edgy