2009 National Book Award Finalist,
Young People's Literature
Rita
Williams-Garcia Jumped HarperTeen, an imprint of
HarperCollins Publishers
Video from the 2009 National
Book Awards Finalist Reading
Photo credit: Jason
Berger
CITATION
Dominique is angry. Trina is
self-absorbed. Leticia is the spectator, the only one
who can stop the spiral that Rita Williams-Garcia sets
spinning in this harrowing tale of girl violence. Like
three strands of a rope, their lives and stories twist
around each other into an inescapably tight knot. In
this powerful novel, the huge questions of kindness,
mercy, and fate are so keenly drawn that by the inevitable
conclusion, even the reader feels jumped.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Acclaimed author Rita Williams-Garcia
intertwines the lives of three very different teens
in this fast-paced, gritty narrative about choices and
the impact that even the most seemingly insignificant
ones can have. Weaving in and out of the girls’
perspectives, readers will find themselves engrossed
in not one intimate portrayal but three.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Winner of the PEN/Norma Klein
Award, Rita Williams-Garcia is the author of six novels
for young adults, including No Laughter Here, Every
Time a Rainbow Dies, and Like Sisters on the
Homefront, which was named a Coretta Scott King
Honor Book.
Williams-Garcia is currently
a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts
in the Writing for Children & Young Adults Program
and lives in Jamaica, New York.
You know, life is unfair.
Bea’s class has Push and I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings for winter break reading.
They’re reading true-to-life dramas. Stuff that
make your eyes run right-left-right like feet on fire.
Our class has Black Boy, The Stranger, and
Mr. Walsh’s favorite, A Separate Peace.
“A book every high school student must read,”
according to Walsh. I see his point. One day I might
transfer to an elite military school, befriend a bunch
of losers, climb a tree, and watch a classmate fall
and break his leg. That’s right. Pushed or fell,
the classmate breaks a leg and dies. He doesn’t
die on the spot. Dying drags out over time so the
so-called friend can Hamletize over to tell or not
to tell that he’s responsible for the broken
leg and his death. So, yeah. I see how it all relates
to my life because every other day I’m up a
tree pushing some loser to his eventual death, then
breaking out into a soliloquy. Don’t you just
love the classics?
I read the book. Every page,
even when I wanted to skim. I already have zero period
math. I don’t need to rise at an ungodly hour
for zero period English next semester.
I look around. Unlike every
one else’s book, mine is brand new, no cracks,
no creases down the spine. Each page corner as sharp
as I when I bought it. Not a highlighter or pen mark
to be found between the covers. You can’t get
your money back from the store if it looks used. It’s
not easy to read a book you don’t crack open
all the way but I’ve mastered the art of keeping
the book brand new. Black Boy, The Stranger and
A Separate Peace are all crisp and clean.
Ready to be returned along with the receipt.
Jumped is currently available
at your local library or for sale through most major retailers,
including:
