August 23, 2021
Half-Black Amandla Harden, 15, just wants a normal birthday without dealing with her white single mother Annalisa’s “notions.” In Sugar Town, a township “on the fringe of” Durban, South Africa, Amandla’s family is known both because of their poverty and because of their mixed race. When Amandla finds a stack of cash and an address, she follows it, finding her terminally ill maternal grandmother and the rest of her mother’s previously hidden rich, white family. Despite Annalisa’s reservations and warnings against Amandla’s brutish grandfather, Amandla and her Mayme want to spend time together. As Amandla learns that people from Annalisa’s past thought she had run away or died, Amandla wonders what truly caused her mother’s memory loss, and just where her father could be. Friends Lil Bit and Goodness support Amandla as they navigate their messy lives, helping her find her place—both among her real family, and the family she’s always had in Sugar Town. Nunn (When the Ground is Hard) illuminates the struggles of a cast of strong-willed South African women who build each other up while meeting the intersections of misogyny, racism, and classism head-on. Ages 12–up.
Starred review from October 1, 2021
Gr 7 Up-Fifteen-year-old Amandla is half white and half Black. She lives in Sugar Town, a settlement in South Africa where poor Black people live in rusting metal shacks and don't venture out at night. Her mother works but makes barely enough for them to get by. Much of the time, Amandla feels more like the adult because her mother has memory gaps and flights of fancy. Amandla knows almost nothing about her father or either side of her family. When her mother returns home one afternoon, shaky and more disoriented than usual, everything changes. Amandla looks in her mother's bag and finds a large stack of money and a cryptic note with an address and instructions to enter a doorway there. What follows is part coming-of-age story, part mystery, infused with dysfunctional family dynamics. As she seeks the truth about what happened to her mother and father years before, Amandla learns who really loves her, how many friends she has in Sugar Town, the vile and pervasive nature of racism in South Africa, and her own strength. Excellent narration by Bahni Turpin, especially in the subtle variation between Amandla and her mother's voices, enhances this audiobook. VERDICT An excellent story for teens who appreciate strong female protagonists and a story that reflects life in another country and culture.-John R. Clark, formerly with Hartland P.L., ME
Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
June 8, 2021
Sugar Town Queens is a young adult coming-of-age novel by Malla Nunn, author of When the Ground is Hard. Her latest book follows 15-year-old Amandla, who is mixed-raced and growing up in Sugar Town, one of South Africa’s many townships. Money is the only way out and when Amandla discovers that her mother comes from money, she begins to wonder why they are stuck in Sugar Town instead of Durban. Amandla sets out to uncover the truth about her wealthy white family. Sugar Town Queens strikes the perfect balance between character- and plot-driven story. Through her quest for the truth, Amandla, who has always lived in a form of isolation, slowly begins to realise the power of community and Ubuntu, the Zulu philosophy that a person is a person because of other people. Newfound friendship helps to create newfound family. Nunn does a phenomenal job at incorporating Zulu culture, tradition and language into the novel—these aspects of life have a significant impact on how the characters communicate, interact and live. Nunn also makes a point to talk about South Africa post-Mandela and the difficulties of bringing together a nation so divided by race and wealth. Like recent similarly politically charged YA novels The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and I Am Change by Suzy Zail, context is given for these topics so they’re easy to understand but never feel separate to the main story. In Sugar Town Queens Amandla’s South Africa is both beautiful and deeply flawed, much like those she loves.
Tracy-Kate Simambo is a poet and former Djed Press mentee. Read her interview with Malla Nunn about Sugar Town Queens here.