Imani All Mine

Reason Book Chosen

I chose this book because it won the BCALA Honor Book for 1999 and is yet another crossover “adult” novel. It also has positive reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and School Library Journal.

Bibliographic Information

Author: Connie Rose Porter

Publisher: Mariner Books

ISBN: 0618056785

Copyright Date: 1999

Genre

Urban Fiction

About the Author

Connie Rose Porter is an African-American young adult and children’s author whom has published. Her young adult novels include Imani All Mine and All-Bright Court. She has also written some of the “Addy” stories in the American Girl series.

Reader’s Annotation

In a dim-lit community, there is a flickering light in an unwanted child. 

Plot Summary

Tasha, a fourteen-year-old African American teenager, becomes a single mother to Imani, and must quickly learn the physical and emotional skills to be a parent to a child she didn’t want or plan. Tasha is still a child herself in many ways, hardly able to cope with school, her mother’s new boyfriend, the loss of her virginity and “that night.” Imani means faith, and Tasha sets out on a journey to find faith, in herself, in her baby, and in all that their relationship brings out in her. Along the way she has to deal with her drug dealing neighbor, her neighbor’s meddlesome mother, her feelings for a boy named Peanut – a boy she likes- as well as her feelings towards another boy that she feels deep hatred towards. All the while there are shootings that are regularly happening in her neighborhood, poverty all around her, and lack of faith everywhere in her community.

Critical Analysis

Porter covers not just what is hard physically about having a baby at such a young age, but what is hard emotionally, even the lack of emotion itself. She doesn’t’ glorify the experience, nor condemn it, just tells it how it is. She captures the hopelessness of Tasha’s community without beating the reader over the head with it. She successfully has Tasha float along in this community, existing within it yet observing it go around her at the same time. The relationship between Tasha, her own mother, and her daughter is interesting and dynamic, as is the relationship Tasha has with herself. The book takes a couple unexpected and refreshing plot turns, as well, and all the characters either feel authentic or serve the function of contributing to Tasha’s evolution. The only issue that feels introduced but not fully explored is race relations, specifically in regards to how Tasha feels about her mother having a white boyfriend.

Themes/Issue/Tags

Teen Pregnancy, Rape, Violence/shootings, Death, Religion, Faith, Loss, Mother/Daughter Relationship, Poverty

Controversial Subject Matters

Teen pregnancy

Defense: the book does not glamorize teen pregnancy (goes the opposite)

Rape

Defense: The scene is not graphic

Death of young and/or innocent community members

Booktalking Ideas

Topic hooks -

Teen pregnancy as a result of Rape,

Concealing pregnancy (or anything) from parents

Being a kid, but also having to be an adult with responsibilities (being caught

somewhere in the middle)

Topic- community violence (and how feelings around that might change if you had a baby)

Character- Read section in which Tasha has guilt about shaking her baby and almost hurting her (after she learns that this is not a safe or ok thing to do). Hurting vs. loving a baby.

Curriculum Ties

Health- Teen Pregnancy

Health- Rape

Reading Level

12+

Interest Level

14-17