With So Done, Paula Chase (Flipping the Script) perfectly captures the challenges black girls face as they tentatively begin their transition to becoming young women. It's the final weeks of summer, and an unspeakable incident hovers over best friends Tai and Mila. Their neighborhood, the Cove, is a community populated mainly by black and brown people, where the social order among young people is strict and money is always tight. The threat of drugs and violence is present but not overwhelming, more a part of the ambience of the Cove than an active danger.
Tai and Mila navigate the turbulent waters of tweenhood while trying to balance their looming secret, widening friend pools and their uncertainty about whether they will be friends or foes in the new school year. There is also news that a talented and gifted program will be starting in their neighborhood, further straining the already tense relationship between the girls as their friend group feels the stirrings of competition.
Chase presents genuine characters whose interactions are authentic; the tweens express their true feelings in conversations and fights that don't feel petty or overly dramatic. She does not flinch in her determination to examine subjects that are difficult to discuss (and sometimes ignored) in middle-grade works, including drug abuse and sexual misconduct. But her characters are not victimized and voiceless--they are given righteous anger, strength and the benefit of the doubt. So Done excellently embodies the experience of young, black girls and the stress and triumphs of striving to be an individual in a community that respects sticking together above all else. --Breanna J. McDaniel, author, freelance reviewer