Literary Hub (audio review)
Challenges stereotypes in a tale of friendship…Jeanette Illidge’s conversational narration matches the prose well. Like most audiobook narrators of middle grade and young adult fiction, Illidge reads with the brightness of an adolescent.”
From the Publisher
*Equal parts mystery, coming-of-age narrative and coastal California travelogue, The Only Black Girls in Town is an affectionate tribute to friends, both new and old, and the ways they enrich our lives.—Bookpage, starred review
starred review Kirkus
*"A heartfelt tale with classy, indelible characters.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A heartfelt tale with classy, indelible characters.”
School Library Journal (starred review)
Skillfully depicts the ways friendships can be shaped by common experience and racial proximity.”
starred review School Library Journal
*"A nuanced novel that skillfully depicts the ways friendships can be shaped by common experience and racial proximity.
Shelf Awareness (starred review)
Colbert’s well-articulated prose captures the difficulties of tween years without skirting around tough topics like racism, menstruation and bullying.”
starred review Booklist
*"A remarkable middle-grade debut from YA powerhouse Colbert...a sweet story featuring children of color trying to find their place in a society that tells them they do not fit. Strongly recommended.
bestselling author of Ghost Boys Jewell Parker Rhodes
Exploring growing-up issues and historical secrets with empathy, insight, and grace, Colbert creates a stunning tale of family, friendship, and racial identity. An engaging, must read for everyone.
BCCB
Colbert capably combines a familiar tale of middle-school friendships under pressure with details about ongoing racial microaggressions.
starred review Shelf Awareness
*"Colbert's well-articulated prose captures the difficulties of tween years without skirting around tough topics like racism, menstruation and bullying.
starred review Publishers Weekly
*"Colbert employs a compulsively readable style to convey the sometimes difficult experience of young friendship, and the power and peril of claiming one's identity out loud.
author of Some Places More Than Others Renée Watson
A tender, humorous, and suspenseful story about navigating the turbulent waters of middle school friendship.”
BookPage (starred review)
Equal parts mystery, coming-of-age narrative and coastal California travelogue…An affectionate tribute to friends, both new and old, and the ways they enrich our lives.”
author of Some Places More Than Others p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Georgia}span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
"The Only Black Girls in Town is a tender, humorous, and suspenseful story about navigating the turbulent waters of middle school friendship. Alberta and Edie prove that Blackness is not a monolith and remind us that if you keep looking, there's always more to see and learn about the people and places we love. Colbert's middle grade debut is an unputdownable tale. Readers will want to hang out with Alberta and Edie long after the story ends.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2019-11-10
A new neighbor brings change and mystery to rising seventh grader Alberta Freeman-Price.
Despite the fact that Alberta and her dads are some of the small number of black people in Ewing Beach, California, Alberta leads a pretty chill life, surfing and eating ice cream with her best friend, Laramie. Then the bed-and-breakfast across the street is taken over by new neighbors from New York, a black single mom and her goth daughter, Edie. The fact that Edie is black fuses the bond between the two. When Edie discovers mysterious journals in the attic of the B&B, she shares them with Alberta. The author of the journals was Constance, a young woman who apparently worked as a nanny in the building during the 1950s. The girls' obsession with the journals combines with their emerging friendship to cause Alberta to feel torn between Laramie, who is white, and Edie. While Alberta and Edie juggle the awkward, sometimes-painful dynamics of middle school friendships, bullies, and racism, their research into the journals leads the girls to a discovery of family and racial dynamics that transcends time. Colbert's middle-grade debut, centering black girls who represent a range of experiences, deserves a standing ovation. Alberta's narration is perceptive and accessible as she navigates race in America in the past and present.
A heartfelt tale with classy, indelible characters. (Fiction. 10-12)
