Book Review: A Good Kind of Trouble,* by Lisa Moore Ramée, published March 12, 2019, 384 pages (Kindle edition), Lexile 720, recommended for grades 6-8 or 10-14 years.  Please note: this title is not yet in the Pageturner library and requires student requests for purchases to be made.

First, a confession: for more than 62% of this book, I genuinely disliked our narrator/protagonist, Shayla Willows.  Twelve years old and in 7th grade, she begins full of herself, highly opinionated in all the wrong directions and seriously on the wrong track, imho. Shay is riddled with anxieties, some of which are completely understandable—she’s been hiding herself since her first period started much earlier than a lot of girls. Now for the first time, she has to change for gym class:

“A girl next to me starts getting undressed, and I do a good job of not noticing her pretty panties with lace and her tiny bra with lots of little hearts. (I wore two shirts in fourth grade before Momma figured it out and bought me a training bra. By fifth grade, I guess I had successfully passed training, because Momma bought me a “real” bra and then new ones in sixth when I went up a size.) My bras are not tiny, or cute. They’re big and white and practical.” (1)

Shay’s best friends, together “the United Nations,” are of Puerto Rican and Japanese descent.  She’s a Black girl with no Black friends, although older sister Hana has tried to steer her differently:

“She shakes her head like I’m so exasperating. “Are you still sitting in the lunch pit? Or have you gone over by the basketball courts yet?” When I first started at Emerson, Hana told me the Black kids sit by the basketball courts. Hana is really weird about race stuff. Not only does she tease me about not having Black friends, she only has Black friends.” 

Who your friends are becomes increasingly important, as the novel revolves around an L.A. police officer-involved shooting, in which a White woman officer shot to death an unarmed Black man as he was walking away from her to his car.  Shay assumes the officer will be convicted because there’s a video clearly showing what happened. (2)  She does not understand the power of a White woman proclaiming fear for her life from a Black man—she doesn’t know history because it’s not taught in schools, although her school is named after Ralph Waldo Emerson and at least Ms. Jacobs is talking about abolition and freedom, based on Emerson’s writings. (3)

Perhaps my biggest beef with Shay is how completely she falls for the only Black boy in school with green eyes.  It’s not about who he is, or how he acts—indeed, when she first sees him do something quite awful, she basically erases it from her mind. It’s those eyes!

“’There’s a guy in my first period who’s really cute. He has the greenest eyes and he makes everyone laugh all the time.’ Thinking about Jace gets me all tingly, like small moths are settling all over my arms and legs. It’s a strange feeling. I don’t even know if I like it. ‘Is he nice?’ Hana asks.” Shayla hasn’t noticed that he makes people laugh at the expense of others.  And she doesn’t even consider Hana’s key question; it’s like she didn’t even hear it.

Her beautiful friend Isabella has a favorite green top.  Hoping to catch Jace’s eye, Shay asks to borrow it and poor Isabella has been trained to be submissive, she doesn’t know how to say no.  Green is the color of jealousy, of course—and it rears its ugly head in Shay’s mind:

“The green looks good against my brown skin. But will it be good enough for Jace to notice me? Wearing Isabella’s top just might be the thing that finally makes Jace see me as the girl of his dreams…What if Isabella only lent me her top because she knew it would make Jace think of her?” …Me and Jace are lab partners now and he smiled at me. Twice. That wipes away a whole heap of bad feelings…I drift off to PE thinking about Jace’s green, green eyes and wide smile. Even though he jokes around a lot, he’s not really a smiley person, so I don’t think I’m being ridiculous to think him smiling at me means something.”

There’s a pre-New Year’s dance coming up, and Shay is in her little dream world: “Even though Julia has been saying how dumb the dance will probably be, I’m excited. Maybe I’ll get to dance with Jace. He hasn’t thrown any more smiles my way, but at least we’re still lab partners… And then suddenly, there’s Jace, and I feel like maybe I have asthma or something because it’s hard to breathe. He starts dancing right next to me. The makeup must’ve done the trick!... then I realize that although he is dancing next to me, he is actually dancing with Isabella. It feels like somebody just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water on my head.”  Sadly, she blames Isabella, not Jace:

“[Y]ep, there’s Isabella and Jace. Dancing and laughing and looking like a great couple…what do I do when my two best friends have both done me dirty?... I really want Jace to like me. And I really, really want him to not like Isabella…I don’t want one of my friends liking the same boy I like. Why can’t I have dibs on a guy I like, whether he likes me or not?” At this point we are 60% into the novel and I kinda hate Shay.  How on earth is the author going to turn this around in any believable way?

“’But you can’t like somebody just because of the way they look. Maybe you should, you know, like somebody who’s nice to you and likes you back?’ Hearing myself say that out loud stings. All I’ve cared about with Jace is how he looks. He’s never acted as if he likes me, and I haven’t paid a bit of attention to that.”  But in her next thought: 

“’What are you doin’ over here by yourself?’ I look up at Jace and my mouth opens, but no words come out. ‘You all right?’ I shut my mouth and swallow the soggy lump of sandwich. And then I nod at him. Jace smiles at me. Jace smiles at me. Jace smiles at me.

"Then he surprises me by sitting down. Right next to me, which makes me feel like I’m going to swallow my tongue or something. I tell myself, Okay, breathe, yeah, he asked about Isabella, but he’s sitting right here next to you. He’s sitting close enough for our arms to touch. And then he asks, ‘Is she talking to anybody?’ ‘Who?’ I ask, not quite able to keep myself from staring at him. ‘Who we talkin’ about, girl?’ Jace asks, like I’m stupid. ‘Oh, Is? I mean Isabella?”’I laugh. Ha, ha! This is so very, very funny. ‘She’s not, I mean, she’s sort of . . .’ I sound completely stupid. ‘Uh, I mean, she, um, she uh, is, uh . . .’ I want to tell him about Isabella’s mom not allowing her to have a boyfriend or something, but my mouth won’t let me say it. ‘She isn’t talking to anybody right now,’ I admit. Jace smiles big and leans against the wall. I know that smile. I have seen it on Hana’s face a million times. It is the smile that says, I can have whatever I want, because I am all that. And I know it’s true."

When reality bites, it bites HARD.  Suddenly she's hyperaware of Jace's unwarranted superiority complex and how it feeds his belittling of others. Finally, it’s Jace’s hard diss against her favorite teacher, Mr. Powell, that makes her sit up and think straight:

“He starts talking about hating history and how he has a bad grade and how it’s all Mr. Powell’s fault. “Do you do your homework?” I ask. Jace scowls at me. “I do enough. He’s just a punk and he wears those dumb scarves like what my mama would wear.” “What?” I say. “Mr. Powell’s the best.” I move over so our arms can’t touch anymore. Jace gives me a what’s-with-you look, but I don’t care. I think about him talking about my forehead. And being mean to Alex. I try to think of one time I saw him being nice, but I can’t think of any. I sat next to Jace today. It wasn’t so great.”

Shortly after this, she’s ready to fight when somebody claims she’s not “really Black.”  But then she’s accepted as really Black, because Black people fight.  SMH. Meanwhile, her family awaits the verdict on the police shooting; protests are beginning.  And the verdict is NOT GUILTY. A White woman’s fear, whether real or simply proclaimed, has won. Her entire family participates in a silent march, with candles.  For the first time, Shay realizes the power of silence. How LOUD it is!

Then she sees Bernard protecting a skimpy kid named Alex, who’s about to be put in a garbage can—he punches a kid who’s insisting on it.  Immediately it’s BERNARD who’s in trouble, and Shay stands up in his defense.  So does track Coach West, which makes all the difference. And here’s a real turning point for Shay, with an important comment:

“My journal doesn’t argue or tell me to be more understanding. It just listens. I wish I hadn’t been so scared of Bernard. But it’s not like you get to choose what’s going to freak you out, right? And if you are never afraid, then how do you know when you’re brave?” [emphasis added]

Shay decides to be brave.  The girl who had always tried to stay under the radar, who’d followed her mother’s advice never to get in trouble, who had tried never even to look another girl’s underwear in the gym locker room. . Because she’s beginning to understand that there’s bad trouble, indeed—but also a good kind of trouble.  And here’s the title of the novel.

“In fifth period I found out the fight was all about Noah Randolph getting commanded to take off his armband and he wouldn’t, so a bunch of other boys started whaling on him. The way I heard it, by the time Principal Trask waded in, one boy had a bloody nose and Noah had a puffy eye. And even though Noah wouldn’t take off his armband, it ended up being torn off anyway and Principal Trask made him throw it away.” Soon after, Principal Trask bans armbands, announcing on loudspeaker they will warrant disciplinary action. And soon after THAT, as Shay is armed with a big bag of armbands from Hana, most of the students—and also Coach West, her Trask emerges with scissors and is cutting them off of arms, while Shay is giving them out all over again.  Trask remands Shay to her office and calls her mom.

Shay is sorry; she wants to apologize to her mother for breaking the rules. To her astonishment, however, mom comes on strong and demands to know where in the student manual it says that armbands violate the dress code. Trask backs down and suggests they simply not be worn during school hours—but she’s already lost. “’No, ma’am,’ Momma says. ‘We cannot agree on that. There isn’t one thing wrong with these students showing that they understand the value of life. That’s just what this school should be teaching. Have you ever read any of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works?’”

Meanwhile, there’s been another police shooting. Two male officers have gunned down an unarmed Black woman selling incense. Protests erupt. Shay is a wholly different person now. 

“…[F]eeling good about yourself for being brave feels tons better than something silly like having a boyfriend. When we get home, Momma gives me back my phone. The first thing I do is post a selfie of me wearing my armband.

“I can’t believe I risked a friendship over a boy… Sometimes you don’t even realize you’re holding your breath until you finally let it out.

“Seeing the United Nations get a whole lot bigger feels awesome. I lean over and give Bernard a nudge. ‘Hey, Bernard,’ I say. ‘Do you think we could ask Mr. Levy for us to be lab partners again?’ He gives me a high five so hard, I have to rub my hand on my pants. ‘Ow!’ I say, laughing. Bernard’s laughter is so loud, it’s like a lion’s roar.”

She appreciates Bernard now, and asking to switch lab partners will really annoy the teacher who dislikes Bernard so much!  But more, she now really values Bernard.  He’s no longer a big oaf, he’s a real hero.

In her acknowledgment, the author nails the final word:  “We need diverse books, Black girl magic is real, and Black lives matter.”  Amen.
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*Awards and Honors: 

Kirkus Best Books - 2019
SLJ Best Books - 2019 
NPR’s Book Concierge - 2019 
The Walter Awards Honoree Younger Readers Category – 2020
Vermont Golden Dome Book Award Nominee (2021)
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award Nominee (2021) 

(1)   “..[T]he percentage of girls getting their period before the age of 11 grew from 8.6% to 15.5 %, and those who began menstruation before age 9 more than doubled.
The study found this trend toward earlier periods across all demographics, but it was much more pronounced among girls from racial and ethnic minorities and those from lower incomes… The study also found more girls are taking longer to reach regular menstrual cycles. Irregular menstrual cycles are associated with several health conditions, including polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. And an earlier age of first menstruation is linked to several adverse health outcomes, including a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, miscarriage and early death. It’s also linked to several cancers, including ovarian, endometrial and breast cancer.” See: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/05/31/nx-s1-4985074/girls-are-getting-their-first-periods-earlier-heres-what-parents-should-know

(2)   “Police officers are prosecuted for murder in less than 2 percent of fatal shootings… Since 2005, 139 police officers have been arrested for murder or manslaughter due to an on-duty shooting, according to data from Philip Matthew Stinson, a criminal justice expert at Bowling Green State University who has been tracking the data for years. That amounts to fewer than nine prosecutions a year. About 1,000 fatal police shootings are reported each year in the US — so the arrest rate is around 1 percent, never higher than 2 percent. See: https://www.vox.com/21497089/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-trial-police-prosecutions-black-lives-matter

“1,158 people have been shot and killed by police in the past 12 months…The Post has tracked 10,080 fatal police shootings since 2015. ..[L]ocal police departments are not required to report these incidents to the federal government. Also compounding the problem: an updated FBI system for reporting data and confusion among local law enforcement about reporting responsibilities… The number of fatal police shootings has risen in recent years. Police killed the highest number of people on record in 2023.”  See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/

(3)   Was Emerson a racist? Certainly not in the context in which he lived, when slavery was perfectly legal, widely practiced, and literally grew the empire.  BUT.  Here’s an academic perspective that discusses Emerson’s racism in context, as well as his self-contradictory abstractions. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=polsci_pubs

(4) You can read a transcript about 10 years of Black Lives Matter history, progress and backlash, here: https://www.aclu.org/podcast/blacklivesmatter-progress-and-backlash

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