Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks has a tale for each block; ten tales in all. On each block you meet wonderful characters like the Low Cuts, Satchmo Jenkins, and Simeon and Kenzi. You partake in the daily adventures of these students as they make their way to and from school in ten blocks.
Elizabeth Acevedo’s award-winning book introduces Xiomara Batista, the Poet X. Xiomara lives in Harlem with Twin, Mami, and Papi. Mami is deeply religious and strict. Xiomara is feisty and fierce. She pours her thoughts and feelings out as poetry in the leatherbound notebook her twin, Xavier, gave to her. Poetry is her passion, and Xiomara aches for a regular teenage life outside her mother’s strict boundaries. Xiomara is asked to join the Spoken Word Club at school, something she knows will directly confront Mami’s rules, and yet Xiomara isn’t sure she has the courage to speak her words out loud in front of others.
Ever since the John Hancock incident in elementary school, Amina has experienced stage fright. Happy to stay in the background, she enjoys hanging out with her best friend Soojin. But she finds things are different now in middle school. Things are changing, and Amina finds some of these changes difficult and she is unsure of how to handle them. Her older brother, Mustafa gets into a bit of trouble. Her father’s older brother is visiting from Pakistan, and he voices his unfavorable opinion about Amina singing. Soojin wants to hang out with Emily, one of the more popular girls at school. While Amina wants desperately to keep her friendship with Soojin as it is. When her mosque is vandalized, Amina and her community are devastated by the hateful act. With the support of her family, friends, and community, Amina perseveres.
Six students are placed in the ARTT (a room to talk) room by their teacher, Mrs. Laverne. It’s a room without adults, a room where the six of them can talk about anything they want. Haley narrates the story of Amari, Ashton, Esteban, Holly, Tiago, and herself. Through their afternoons spent together, the six become close and soon trust each other enough to talk about tough issues and their insecurities. They discuss feelings and issues from Esteban’s father being sent to a detention center by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bullying and racial profiling. Each of the six has a gift to share with the rest of the group that brings strength to the others in the ARTT room. The stories they share with each other gather empathy and the group’s support. Harbor Me is an example of the importance and power of friendship.
Jerome is a ghost. The unarmed, twelve-year-old boy was shot and killed in a Chicago neighborhood vacant lot by a white police officer. Now Jerome can only be seen by Sarah Moore, the young daughter of the officer who shot him. Sarah discovers that her father made some serious mistakes the night Jerome was shot. Jerome isn’t sure why he keeps hanging around his family, his friend Carlos, and Sarah, but with the help of the ghost of Emmett Till, he will learn what he needs to do to help others.
In her Pakastani village, Amal dreams of attending college and becoming a teacher. So as the eldest daughter in her family of all daughters, Amal applies herself in all her lessons and always gives her best effort at school. She is Miss Sadia’s star pupil. But when Amal insults the cruel area landlord, she finds herself in dire circumstances. Because of this insult and the fact that her father owes the Khan family money, Amal must leave her family to work for the Khans. Her dreams of a bright future are slipping through her fingers.
Justyce McAllister looks to the writings and examples of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to help him through the “incident”. Justyce was arrested for a misunderstanding which involved Justyce stopping his very drunk ex-girlfriend from getting behind the wheel of her car. The misunderstanding of this scenario: a young black male picking up his biracial drunken ex-girlfriend and putting her in the back seat of her car because she is too intoxicated to drive when a police officer arrives on the scene. As Justyce is buckling Melo in the back seat, he is pulled from the car, slammed against the trunk, and handcuffed without a chance to explain himself to the officer. This treatment and the national news of another police shooting of an unarmed young black male, leave Justyce thinking, “It could have been me!” Justyce searches for answers in Dr. King’s words and deeds. Will this be enough to help Justyce survive his senior year?
Sara’s best friend, Linda was taken. Sara Zapata, a journalist, writes of the missing girls of Juarez in her articles published in El Sol. Young pretty girls disappear all of the time. But Sara’s articles about the missing girls have touched some nerves, and she has received threatening emails. Emiliano, Sara’s younger brother, struggles with his place in the world ever since their father left Juarez to make a better life in the United States. Emiliano wants nothing to do with him. But Emiliano has stepped up to find ways to support his mother and Sara. Juarez is a dangerous town, and it’s hard to be good and do the right thing. When Sara makes an important discovery about the desaparecidos (a person who has disappeared and presumed killed by the police), her decision to continue her investigation places her family in serious danger.
Will’s brother Shawn is dead. Shot and killed. Now Will must follow the neighborhood rules. Don’t cry. Don’t snitch. Get revenge. So he grabs Shawn’s gun and hops on the elevator. This will not be an ordinary elevator ride for Will.
