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“This book is very good and if you haven't read it and you like realistic fiction you should reallly read it.”
Ta'Bria C wrote this review Tuesday, October 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“you wont be board to tears when you read this book there is so much action and drama throught out this book its a real page turner. you wont be able to put it down ”
anna h wrote this review Friday, August 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“this story is a sad, happy, sweet, crazy, and a amazing i read this book 3 times and it is still a god book for me ”
Tierra T wrote this review Tuesday, May 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“it was ok
Teyonna M wrote this review Saturday, March 14 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
wasnt to thrilled wit it though”
“A girl named Keyshia and her mom was a prostitute. She had to move in with her dad, and his house was huge. She snuck out like 101 times, and she started to trust ehr dad, and she liked being there.”
Dani P. wrote this review Thursday, January 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“CONNECTIONS
Nardsbaby wrote this review Tuesday, December 16 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
KEYSHA'S DRAMA written by Earl Sewell tells the story of Keysha, a teen from Chicago; she is forced to be responsible for self.
With the new school year approaching, the nerd in Keysha is anxious to at the very least have somewhere to escape to. Unfortunately, with an impending eviction, missing mom and no money, Keysha agrees to go on a shopping spree. Things didn't exactly go as they had expected, Keysha learns that Justine, her missing mom, isn't just out hanging in the streets, but is incarcerated so what's going to happen to her?
Uprooted, confused, unloved and desperately trying to beat the odds, Keysha is trying hard to deal with her situation. When she learns that she has a father who is willing to take her in, Keysha is apprehensive. Suddenly she doesn't have it so tough. While she and her step-mother and step brother aren't exactly receptive, she finally has a home, with her own room and a chance to do things differently. Will Keysha use this opportunity to better herself? Or is she her own worst enemy?
KEYSHA'S DRAMA was a really quick and easy read. Although I felt an immediate connection to the character, it felt a little mismatched for the beginning as we went through the background. However, I didn't detour and look forward to reading IF I WERE YOUR BOYFRIEND featuring the same main character.
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“The name of the next book is titled Keysha’s Drama. The author is Earl Sewell. This is another book from the Kimani Tru series. It wasn’t hard to read so I’ll give a brief summarization.
Tiffany S wrote this review Tuesday, November 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I will now give the cover description. This time there is no subtitle. The background is dark and non descriptive. There is a pretty brown skin girl sitting in a contemplative pose with a long sleeved orange shirt and blue jeans. She has a backpack on her left shoulder.
It starts off with Keysha eyeing her ex boyfriend Ronnie on the street. She hasn’t seen him or spoken to him for two months. Part of the reason was she had to move. The biggest being that she spotted him at the movies hugged up on some other chick. She approaches him thinking that they can work it out and wanting to give him a chance to explain his self all though he hasn’t called her. Now she may look a little desperate in this scene but I can relate because I don’t know if I ever carried on like her but when a person tells you they love you and then they live you or cheat on you like that sometimes your pride just seems to get lost!
You might find yourself begging and whining when really it AINT even you! It’s him. Ronnie sounded like a loser any way. Keysha goes a little crazy and jumps on him and starts hitting him when he tells her she is dismissed and he ain’t feeling her no more. The very one that made her promises of forever, and the very one she gave it up too. Yep Ronnie is a no good DOG. His mama comes and breaks it up. From here things just continue to get worse for Keysha.
On the way home she runs into her little hood rat girlfriend Toya, who has a baby and is under the mind set that she will just sit around at the house and let her man take care of her (rolls eyes in irritation). She convinces Keysha to watch her baby Junior while she goes to handle some business. She comes back 2 hours later all scarred up from getting in a fight when some random chick she sees her man with. But not surprisingly she doesn’t say anything to HIM! I guess it’s that “side line ho” mentality that Monica made that song about! I’m not even gone try to understand it.
So Keysha’s mom comes and Keysha remind’s her that she needs to register for school the next day and money for school stuff. Her mother dismisses her and goes off to party at some club. All ready we see how her mama is. It’s a shame because Keysha is very intelligent and likes to read a lot. She graduated middle school with all A’s, thinking that if she did she’d get her mother’s attention and that she wouldn’t have to follow in her mother and grandmother Ruby Lee’s shoes who both eventually wind up in jail. But after a while her enthusiasm wears thin, all though she does like school and sees it as an “escape”
Toya tries to talk her into staying home with her and watching Jerry Springer and playing cards but she declines and tries to get out of there when she sees her mother coming home with some strange guy. She vaguely recognizes him and he is giving her the once over. Dude has like a big scar on his face like he got cut. He tells her that she looks familiar like someone he knows could be her daddy, but her mother shrugs it off. She told Keysha that she didn’t know who her father was. That hasn’t stopped her though from having dreams that he will one day find her and take her away from all the hell she has gone through.
She hooks up with Toya one day after school who comes up with a plan. She appeals to Keysha’s better judgement of wanting some new things and clothes for the school year. She of course won’t be going cause she doesn’t have anyone to watch her baby. Even though she has a grandmother she ain’t to crazy about her watching the baby cause I don’t think she can see that good. Why don’t she get her sorry behind trifling boyfriend to watch the baby while she at school? What will he be doing? Probably screwing around with all his other chicks. So they come up with this idea that they will take Junior and hit up a few stores and put the merchandise in his stroller.
Right away you know this ain’t gone work. Keysha ain’t new to it but she doesn’t want to get Junior involved. Yeah that is kind of low down. So Keysha distracts the lady at one of the stores by talking to her about a book she read and they talk and talk. Shortly afterwards when Keysha goes to the bathroom she hears some of the mall employees talking about some girl that was about to get arrested. She rushes out and sure enough there is Toya handcuffed.
She screams out to Keysha but she gets cold feet and turns and exits out the store. That WAS messed up for Keysha to leave that girl hanging like that. They were both doing that mess together. It was a stupid idea from the jump. Keysha can’t sleep that night and is jumpy all the next day at school. The police even interrupt her class the next day but they get someone else. (exhales) Lucky break.
She even runs into Toya’s grandmother who tells her that Toya is in jail and she doesn’t know where Junior is. She goes home only to find a eviction notice on her door. If they don’t pay the rent in a couple of days they will be kicked out on the street.
Her mother “disappears” and Keysha is scared and doesn’t know what to do. She has a feeling that her mother isn’t going to come back and she has no one else to turn too. She considers asking Toya’s grandmother to take her in. She runs into Toya outside and I don’t know why in the world she goes over to her. It’s like duh. Toya is talking to her man and tells him to leave while she deals with Keysha. Toya claims that the only reason she called Keysha’s name was to take Junior, now they have taken him away from her.
I don’t really think that Toya would have dimed on her neither, but blaming her for them taking her son wasn’t entirely the truth. It was her stupid idea.
Keysha reminds her of this but not in those exact words. Soon a fight erupts and she pulls out her pocket knife and is trying to cut Keysha. I was thinking damn is she gone kill the girl! She does cut her hand when she holds it up to cover her face. It must have been pretty deep. I don’t know how she gets Toya off her but I think it has something to do with a comment about her mother being a whore and that’s why someone was at there house going through there stuff. Keysha runs home and there is a woman in her house.
She informs her that her mother Justine has been arrested and she will have to go with her to stay in a group home. Keysha faints. When she wakes up she allows the woman to call the paramedics who bandage her hand and tell her to see a doctor. She then lets the lady take her to the group home but decides that once she gets there she will run away. The lady gives her options. She knows of a man that might be her father but the call has not been made yet.
Keysha wants her to put a rush on it. Staying at the group home isn’t great but after a while she starts to get use to it. She begins to realize that from listens to the stores of the other girls, in particular a girl named Africa who had to live on the streets with nothing but her malnutritioned dog that eventually died that things could be A LOT worse. Good lesson to remember for all of us! She has to get adjusted to a new school but at least they will pay for her supplies. The lady also takes her to the doctor to tend to her hand where she got stitches.
After about three months go by Keysha settles into her new surroundings and the lady all but disappears. I think her name was Maggie. All up until the residents of the group home are all about to go on a outing! She pulls her into her office and explains to her that the man that they think is her father has agreed to be tested. Keysha is excited and a little nervous. Maggie explains that if things don’t work out with the father she has the option to stay in the group home until she is eighteen and then she could possibly get some help for college until she can find a way to support herself.
Two years is a long time Keysha hopes that her dreams will come true and her father will get her out of that god forsaken group home. She has all but given up hope when Maggie comes to her again and tells her that t……………………. the results are……..
POSITIVE! The man is indeed her father and he would like to meet her.
When they do there are mixed reactions. Jordan’s mother seems sincerely happy to be getting to know her granddaughter and welcomes her with open arms. Barbara Jordan’s wife reaction to the girl is chilly and distrustful. Jordan seems a bit anxious as Keysha is and they discover right off the bat they can read each other through the other’s eyes. After a heated discussion in which Keysha runs from the room, the family leave to talk things over.
I think some time passes and it is decided that Keysha will go live with her father. He and her grandmother pick her up. On the way home they make small talk. Jordan gives Keysha the grand tour. The house sounds very nice! For the first time in her life Keysha has her own bed room. Jordan seems like a good father. He seems very warm and opening and lets her know that she can come to him with any question no matter how “adult”. He even introduces Keysha by way of microfilms and disks to her family history (on his side).
He even sits down and explains to her how he meet her mom. One night he and his cousin were at a party. Back then he was kinda nerdy. He admired his cousin I’ll call him Slim cause right now his real name fails me. So he had just got something like five hundred dollars for a graduation present and Slim wanted to take him out for a night on the town, and specifically to this hype party were there would be girls. Jordan wasn’t much in the department of getting with females so he struck out a lot that night.
Then he noticed Justine and decides to make his move. She lied and told him she was about his age. They kicked it off and ended up getting it on that night. When Jordan woke up she was gone and his five hundred dollars was gone. Later on he finds out this his cousin and Justine had both hustled him. Keysha must have been conceived that very night. You can tell the guy feels terrible about it and vows Keysha that if he would have known her life would have been a lot different.
Not every one is as accepting of her. Her stepbrother Mike is kinda like what I use to call a “studio” gansta, when in reality he ain’t seen no signs of anything “street”. He just fronts and right off the bat he and Keysha have a confrontation. He’s kind of popular around the school cause he’s the youngest in class rank on the high school football team but he got a little too much mouth, as we find out when Keysha smacks him with a broom handle and gets punished for it.
Her stepmother ain’t that hot on her neither cause later we find out she has unresolved issues. It’s kind of creepy how one morning Keysha wakes up and she is sitting in her room in a chair staring at her. I was like “what the @@@@!” She basically lays it down with the girl and tells her she doesn’t trust her and if she screws up she’s out! What a bit@@. She even every time Keysha tries to get in some alone time with her father finds some excuse to come in and drag him away.
Then to top all this off Keysha has to change schools yet AGAIN. At her new school she makes friends with this Gothy-Punk-Bi girl who dresses in all black and has piercings named Liz. She’s stuck in classes with all the troubled students because of her poor record at her last school except for her literature classes.
Keysha immediately begins to fill a connection to Liz when she opens up to her about losing her dad in the war and how she is in grevience for him, which is the reason she dresses in black clothing. Despite how she is teased by the other students Keysha admires Liz’s strength to stand out and be who she is without caring what no body thinks of her. Liz convinces Keysha to sneak out and go to a party with her and after some hesitation she decides to do it.
She gets on Jordan’s good side so he won’t be suspicious of anything out of the normal the night she decides to sneak out the house. She hides her clothes in his green house. Liz and she go to the party and Liz starts coming on to her. I kind of new this was coming when they were talking about sex at school and Liz asks her has she ever thought about having sex with a woman and Keysha is about to say no but pauses and says yes but she’d never act on it.
So they get kinda wild at the party, up to the point where they are in cage dancing all over each other and Keysha starts getting hot off Liz feeling all over her. I think someone slipped her something. She goes off to get some air and a guy calls her over to the car and then she blacks off, but luckily her brother Mike follows her outside and takes her back to the house.
Of course Jordan and Barbara are pissed. But surprisingly Jordan is standing by her. Keysha goes to school and for a couple of days doesn’t see her friend Liza and is wondering where she is. She doesn’t have any thoughts of all at what happened at the party after she blacked up. She doesn’t even know how she got in the house and back in her own bed.
The cops come to the school cause there is a rumor going around that someone had brought drugs into the party and the community. Someone at the party even had to be to the hospital and is suffering from brain damage. She sees Liz and she gives her back her bag that she had her clothes in to change. Not soon after cops rush the school and start arresting people! At the end of the day Keysha is called into the office and when she denies knowing about drugs found in her locker she is handcuffed and taken to jail.
Damn I remember in high school when they did us like that with the metal detectors and all for that one day. Well peeps did have stuff at the school but that just makes you feel so violated, just to be searched like some criminal. I know my high school wasn’t like Ramsey but it wasn’t West end High School neither. So Keysha is being held in an interrogation room like you see on tv.
Jordan comes for her and she all but falls apart and cries out her innocence to her daddy. One look in her eyes and he determines and believes that she is telling him the truth, despite how mad he got when he found out she snuck out behind his back. Yah for Jordan for being man enough to stick by his daughter.
Barbara is another story. She goes wild and tears Keysha’s room apart looking for where she’s stashed the so called drugs she’s been distributing. She and Jordan have a HUGE argument! She wants Keysha gone. Then she even shows Jordan a letter that Ruby Lee her other grandmother wrote her from jail. In it for a minute she was just talking what a normal day for her was like and then she gets into telling Keysha that she should find out what Jordan’s bank account number is and then give it too her so the two of them can clean him out.
I ain’t like how Barbara just read her letter and invaded her privacy like that. But in a surprisingly act on her part Barbara is over the school district, and at a meeting someone calls Keysha out for being the cause of the drug problem going around. Barbara immidently hops to Keysha’s defense and remains her composure. That was big of her. Another night and Keysha wakes up and again she is sitting by her bed staring at her OKAAAY.
But this time she apologized and explains to her that she once had a sister that was into drugs and how her and her sister’s bond was broken because of all the lying and stealing she did. She told her that she judged her before even really getting to know her and that wasn’t cool. She believes that she doesn’t have anything to do with the drug scandal because she’s searched every where and hasn’t found a trace of drugs any where in her room. She tells Keysha that she wasn’t going to kick her out even if she had but would have tried to help her instead. RIIIIIIIIIGHT!
Mike has also come to accept Keysha living there. At the party she learns that when she blacked out those guys she approached where about to all take turns raping her, and Mike came to her rescue. So she is grateful to him and now they are cool. He even forgives her for going on his My Space page and sending out a private blog that he is a wanksta. Ha Ha I thought that was kinda funny.
Last but not least is Jordan. In a heart to heart moment he tells her that he will always be her father and he will always stand up for her and love her. That he just wants to make up for the time that she hasn’t been in his life. That’s how the book closes.
I give this book a seven, which is a low B. I liked the overall message of how family should stick together. I liked how Keysha seems like a good character but she has just been dealt a rough hand. She is fighting despite her circumstances not to be anything like her mother and her grandmother and wind up in jail. I like that she has intelligence and Jordan’s mother gets her to see a whole nother side of her despite the negative way she sees herself. That couldn’t be more true. Sometimes when negativity is all around us we tend to reflect what we hear. But I learned that we can’t let other’s dictate our situations or the way we feel about ourselves.
Sometimes it is easy to fall into having low self esteem just like Keysha did. The right person saying the right things at the right time can be so motivational. When the grandmother gave her that talk she immediately felt comforted and see things in a whole new light and that in itself is a lesson on you just never know the impact and influence your words can have to others.
I liked how Jordan stepped up and was a man and handled his responsibility, He could have easily not taken the test and denied that the child was his. I think this shows real strength and a good example to males African American especially. A lot of them could learn from the example of Jordan in this book. The only character I had a hard time liking was Barbara even at the end.
I know it was a new situation for her to get use too but she just seems so fake to me somehow. Like she was all concerned with her image and what other people was going to think and then losing her lifestyle. I sure as hell didn’t like how she sat in Keysha’s room and was looking at when she woke up in the morning. I mean what was that all about. Overall though I thought that the book was good. If any weakness it held it was the typical poor little hood girl rags to riches story line with everything working out in the end.
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