Book: Standing Against the Wind

Patrice Williams was happy living in Georgia with her grandmother, who called her “cocoa grandbaby.” Then her mother lured her to Chicago and ended up in jail. Now Patrice lives with her Auntie Mae, and her new nickname is “Puffy” – thanks to her giant poof of hair. But Patrice’s hair isn’t the only reason she sticks out: she cares about her grades and strives for the best. That’s why Monty Freeman, another eighth grader who lives in the building, asks Patrice to tutor his little brother. Even though Monty’s friends make Patrice uneasy, Monty himself is friendly, confident, and surprisingly smart. When he becomes her guardian angel, Patrice begins to think something stronger than friendship might be growing between them. Still, nothing will stop her from applying for a scholarship at prestigious Dogwood Academy – her ticket out of the project and a school populated by gangs and drug runners. In her debut novel, Traci L. Jones presents a girl with grit she never knew she had, and a boy so inspired by her that he begins to take pride in his own abilities. Standing Against the Wind is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year and the winner of the 2007 Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe New Talent Award. About the author: Traci L. Jones: I recently, very recently, starting teaching at a wonderful MFA program at Regis University. While I only had to be on campus 2-3 hours a day, I found myself lingering longer and longer. Attending craft workshops, listening to visiting authors read, eagerly participating in the classes offered by the other instructors to our students. I found myself sitting in large empty classrooms minutes, hours, after the class had ended and the other students had gone, pulling out my laptop and writing. Writing! It was there sitting alone, just me, the computer and those wonderful voices in my head, that I learned that writing had lost it's flair for me, and here, amongst other writers, in a literary infused setting, I had found the joy in creating, in moving about words, in visioning new people, in writing, again. So a brief deeply felt thank you to the staff and the students of the MFA program at Regis University, in Denver, Colorado. I feel reborn. Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206754.Standing_Against_the_Wind?ac=1&from_search=true