Name: Pieces of Why
ISBN: 9780147509864

K. L. Going

Tia lives with her mom in a high-risk neighborhood in New Orleans and loves singing gospel in the Rainbow Choir with Keisha, her boisterous and assertive best friend. Tia's dream is to change the world with her voice; and by all accounts, she might be talented enough. But when a shooting happens in her neighborhood and she learns the truth about the crime that sent her father to prison years ago, Tia finds she can't sing anymore.

Pieces of Why

Kelly L. Going

Twelve-year-old Tia lives in a white slum in New Orleans with her mother, and her whole world revolves around singing in the gospel choir with her best friend, Keisha--but when practice is interrupted by a shooting outside the church, and a baby's killed, Tia finds that she can't sing, and she's forced to confront her feelings about her incarcerated father, who killed a girl in a failed robbery years before.

Pieces of why

Jeni Enjaian

A student of mine brought this book in and told me that I had to read it. Having previously known nothing about the book, only a little about the author, I picked it up here and there while my students read during English class until I got to point where I wanted to extend their reading time so that I could continue reading this book.
Going creates a heart-breaking realistic tale of a young girl, Tia, who lives in a lower-income, diverse neighborhood of New Orleans with her mother and the taint of a father in prison for robbery, at least that's what Tia believes about her father when the narrative begins. Tia and her best friend, Keisha, sing in a local choir, the Rainbow Choir, a drive-by shooting that results in the death of a young child less than a year old reopens old wounds and restarts old rumors that paint Tia with the taint of her father, not just an armed robber.
I highly recommend this book.

Pieces of Why

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