No Laughter Here

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Overview

In this groundbreaking novel, Coretta Scott King Award winner Rita Williams-Garcia uses her vividly realistic voice to highlight an often taboo practice that affects millions of girls around the world every year, and to explore a perspective not often depicted in YA fiction.

Even though they were born in different countries, Akilah and Victoria are true best friends. But Victoria has been acting strange ever since she returned from her summer in Nigeria, where she had a special coming-of-age ceremony. Why does proud Victoria, named for a queen, slouch at her desk and answer the teacher's questions in a whisper? And why won't she laugh with Akilah anymore?

Akilah's name means "intelligent," and she is determined to find out what's wrong. But when she learns the terrible secret Victoria is hiding, she suddenly has even more questions. The only problem is, they might not be the kind that have answers.

Previously available only as an ebook, this remarkable novel is now back in print!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063079298
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children’s Books. She is also the author of the NAACP Image Award–winning and National Book Award finalist Clayton Byrd Goes Underground; A Sitting in St. James, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner and Los Angeles Times Book Award winner; Like Sisters on the Homefront, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; Blue Tights; and four ALA Best Books for Young Adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here; Every Time a Rainbow Dies, a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book; and Fast Talk on a Slow Track. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.

Editorial Reviews

This exquisitely written short novel tackles an enormous and sensitive subject… Unapologetic, fresh and painful.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred review)

“Combines a richly layered story with accurate, culturally specific information ..... [a] skillfully told, powerful story.” — ALA Booklist (Starred review)

From the Publisher

This exquisitely written short novel tackles an enormous and sensitive subject. Ten-year-old Akilah waits for her friend Victoria to return to Queens from a summer trip to Victoria's birthplace, Nigeria. But when Victoria returns, she's different. She won't leave her house or even say hello. Eventually she returns to school but gives only one-word answers; she seems wilted and stunned. Where is her laughter, her sharp wit, her academic sparkle? Akilah stays confused until Victoria finally talks: in complete ignorance, she was taken by her family to Nigeria specifically to undergo female genital mutilation. As Akilah, sickened, begins to comprehend, so does the reader. Williams-Garcia pulls no punches: the operation's consequences are clearly explained, not gratuitously but for truth. Eye-opening and grounded solidly in the present, this piece has absolutely non-generic characters and allows a shocking subject various points of view (all black) without sacrificing a moral compass. Unapologetic, fresh, and painful. (author's note) (Fiction. 10-16)

Kirkus Reviews

Combines a richly layered story with accurate, culturally specific information ..... [a] skillfully told, powerful story.

ALA Booklist (Starred review)

"Combines a richly layered story with accurate, culturally specific information ..... [a] skillfully told, powerful story."

(Starred review) - ALA Booklist