In "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi, Fabiola's move from Haiti to the United States proves anything but easy. Fabiola's mother is detained at the airport and subsequently held in a New Jersey detention center while Fabiola makes the rest of the journey to Detroit by herself. She is collected at the airport by her cousins and taken to her aunt's house at the corner of Joy Road and American Street to start her new life in America.
Her eldest cousin, Chantel, was also born in Haiti but remembers little of it. Fabiola finds Chantel to be the easiest of the three cousins to talk to, although Chantel is a few years older. Chantel is driven, career oriented and quiet. The younger cousins, Pri and Donna, are twins. Born in the U.S., they are as American as can be, though that's where their similarities end. Where Donna is tall and slim, Pri is short and muscular. Donna has a vast collection of wigs, makeup and clothes; Pri prefers natural hair and masculine clothes. Donna has been in the same troubled, abusive relationship with neighborhood drug-dealer Dray; Pri hopes the girl of her dreams will finally notice her. For all their differences, the three sisters are not to be trifled with.
Fabiola's culture shock doesn't last too long, but she keeps bits of home nearby. She has an altar to her lwas (Haitian spirits) set up in the room she shares with Chantel and frequently looks for signs of the lwas manifesting themselves in the people she encounters on a daily basis. She looks to them frequently as she begins to navigate dating Dray's friend Kasim and in dealing with the undercover police officer who promises Fabiola her mother's freedom in exchange for incriminating information about Dray.
"American Street" is a fabulous debut novel that artfully weaves a compelling portrait of an immigrant teen with the high-stakes drama of a family caught up in various criminal enterprises.
All characters, even the most peripheral, are fully realized. Fabiola's vodou culture and beliefs play a strong role as the people she encounters show signs of embodying the spirits of which Fabiola and her mother pray. Chief among these is Papa Legba who manifests as a homeless man with a bad leg who sits on an upturned bucket in the empty lot next door and sings. His songs convey a sort of cryptic prescience that helps to guide Fabiola through her trials. In the end, Fabiola's story is a heady mix of magic, violence, drama and romance. It is not to be missed.
Courtney Waters is the Teen Librarian at Missouri River Regional Library.