This is a good book for middle schoolers. It was hard for me to get through because it was a bit slow but the content was good.

To stand on a strip of sand or rock or shell and to look out into the vast expanse of ocean is to reckon with a force completely beyond your control. The persistent wind couples with the breaking waves to induce a state of near-hypnosis that some find meditative and others find suffocating. If you visit the beach, you might pay heed to the tides mostly as a matter of curiosity. If you live by and with and in the ocean, the rhythm of the tides are as constant and familiar as the traffic patterns on your morning commute. And if you surf, well, the tide is everything.

If asked to conjure an image of a surfer, someone along the lines of Keanu Reeves or Matthew McConaughey is very likely to be the result. In The Only Black Girls in Town, author Brandy Colbert helps us remember that surfers (and families, and friends, and neighbors) come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

Alberta lives in a Ewing Beach, CA with her two dads, and she surfs; in fact, she's one of the best surfers in town. She's also the only black kid in her grade until Edie moves in across the street just a few days before seventh grade begins. Edie, too, pushes back against stereotypes with her all-black wardrobe, combat boots, and black lipstick. Despite their differences, both girls take refuge in their shared blackness, finding friendship and navigating the tumultuous realities of seventh grade. And after they find a stack of mysterious diaries from the 1950s in the attic, they discover they aren't the first to feel like they didn't belong.

One of the most powerful forces in literature for young people is the ability to break down barriers. We talk about representation, and of course, this book brings loads of reminders of how important it is to see yourself and be seen as yourself in a book. The obvious answer here is that yes, black girls can be California surfers or New York goths, can have gay dads or be vegetarian. But there are other, perhaps smaller but no less important, forms of representation here. When Alberta describes her interactions with new people, she says
"Even people who don't have a problem with nontraditional families have so many questions. . . . I've watched Dad and Elliott talk to other adults about it, and by the end of the conversation, they always look like I feel: a little frustrated and completely exhausted."
To any child in any nontraditional setting, this kind of recognition is so important. To hear in a book hat explaining is ok, even somewhat understandable, but it does make one tired - to feel heard in that way is like releasing a held breath. And yes, cover images are so important, but so are tiny elements like mentioning a sleep cap or putting lotion on your elbows or figuring out how to be vegetarian without being the weirdo in the room. Small, familiar acts made real in a book: that's life-changing.

Of course, this book is not only about race or family structures or differences. It's also very much about seventh grade and friendships and the tidal push-pull of adolescence. No matter how prepared you are with your charts and your schedules, the lived reality of the ocean is unpredictable. The very fact of the changes, the certainty of them, is part of what unsettles. When Alberta observes the way her best friend, Laramie, seems to be growing up faster than she is, it isn't surprise that things are changing that trips Alberta. It's that you can never really be prepared for exactly how and when the current will shift. It's the way you can feel and sound so grown-up and simultaneously still feel scared and small.

Like any middle-schooler -- and any surfer -- knows, success demands a certain sensitivity to change, a flexibility that allows you to shift your position slightly without changing your core balance. The tide will always be there. You can't control it, but sometimes you can ride it.

I absolutely loved this book! The synopsis is a little misleading, because it definitely deals more with Alberta and her relationships (with her dads and with her two good friends, Edie and Laramie). The journals are definitely important, but it's not the most vital piece of the story. (Also, I was pretty sure I knew what the "shocking and painful" secret was, and I'm really happy I was wrong. It never would've occurred to me. I would still call it a painful secret.)

I think a lot of people could relate to Alberta. She's in middle school (seventh grade) and it feels like all of a sudden, her friends are just...older than she is. Their priorities are different and they act differently, and it's disconcerting for her in a lot of ways. Middle school is the worst, anyway, and it's even harder when your best friend has started ditching you for the popular girl who's awful to you all the time. (REALLY, LARAMIE? #TeamAlberta)

This is just a really good and fun read. It's exactly what we need right now. Highly recommended.

Alberta, the black daughter of two black dads in an almost all-white California seaside town, is excited when a black girl her age, Edie, moves into her neighborhood. The two bond over their love of horror movies and a set of old journals they find in Edie’s attic. Brandy Colbert’s first middle grade novel not only deals with the struggles of middle school girls, but addresses the subtle racism that black students face daily. It is not a boa rant racism, but it cuts nonetheless. Colbert writes in a way that is easy for middle schoolers to read, but also gives a voice to their worries and fears, as well as their hopes and dreams.

For months now I have been dying to get back into The Winnie Years series, but it keeps getting pushed back on my TBR. The Only Black Girls in Town, I am delighted to say, is the perfect surrogate for my Lauren Myracle craving!

I loved Alberta (the main character) and just wanted to hug her and make everything okay for her. I love how perfectly the author emulates pre-teen angst. I can see a lot of young girls taking refuge in this book and finding solace in Alberta's story the way I did with Winnie's.

Brandy Colbert's writing is completely enchanting, and somewhere towards the end it hit me with a shock that this is fiction. I was so into the story, and the characters are so real, that I forgot that they aren't. Frankly, I was stunned. I don't remember the last book I read that had such believable characters.

I just have to add: even though this book does concern race, please don't avoid it because of that. It can be a touchy subject, but Colbert broaches it with the utmost eloquence. I am certain that this book will resonate with young girls of any color because of its appreciation of the struggles that come on the verge of teenage-dom.

The Only Black Girls in Town is a stunning and enrapturing novel from an author who gets young people, knows what they think, and knows what they need to hear.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Young Readers for the early review copy of this great middle grade read! I really enjoyed this one.
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What I loved: There's lots of great representation in this book for middle schoolers - it's #ownvoices and Alberta, the main character, has two dads. Her surrogate mother is a big piece of the story as well. Every character has a good amount of personality and backstory - all are round and you feel like you get to know them well. ⁣
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This book tackles some big issues of microaggressions, what it's like to have two dads, and navigating middle grade social pressures with ease. Everything is discussed in a very age appropriate way. ⁣
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7th grader Alberta feels like she's losing her best friend to the 8th grade crowd and this plot line is relatable for this age group for sure. I love the mystery Alberta and her new friend/neighbor Edie are solving as well - it's a subplot that's super fun and that weaves important black history facts into the book. ⁣
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I'd recommend it to fans of middle grade books and middle school teachers for sure!⁣ And middle schoolers as well. ⁣

WOW!!! Brandy Colbert has done it once again, this was absolutely beautiful, stunning, important, amazing and so on!!!

This was brandy Colbert’s debut into the realm of middle grade and wow was a rollercoaster of a ride this read was, it packed a hell of a lot of punch, with so many important topics and trying to find Your place in the world.

Alberta the main character was such a delight to read about, as we see her grow throughout this book from feeling like she doesn’t fit in, to growing up and dealing with the changes that are happening in her life with her school plus friends and family.

The friendship with the new girl in town Edie was just so beautiful to read about and Nothing could come between this dynamic duo!!! From the moment they met to where we left them at the end of the novel. Can we just get novels of them growing up through the years after because I would read it :)

Brandy Colbert never disappoints when it comes to her writing and the inclusivity she adds to her novels all the time and it’s just so wonderful to read about, Alberta’s two fathers are So wonderful aswell and how they always support Alberta in the best way they can and the family dynamic is just the best.

This novel was everything and more!!! From the first page to the last, here’s to hopefully many more middle grade novels by Brandy Colbert and for sure this will be a contender to be on my top ten of the year!!!

Give me all the Brandy Colbert books of the world. She's lovely and amazing and this middle grade is everything a middle grade is and should be. Focused on Alberta, a black girl living in Ewing Beach in California who likes to surf, has two dads, and has been vegetarian all her life, oh, in addition to being the only black girl in town.

Enter Edie, who just moved from Brooklyn with her divorcee mom to take over a vacated B&B on their block. Now there are two black girls in town. They take to each other right away as they enter the start of 7th grade where several storylines converge-- Laramie, Alberta's white best friend is starting to hang out with the mean girl and it's not sitting with Alberta right. Edie discovers journals in the attic of the B&B that is part of the mystery (see my hidden notes below) that they're going to work together to solve, and Denise, Alberta's biological/surrogate mother and best friend to her dad's is living with them while she finishes her pregnancy and the husband is on a movie shoot.

It's all beautifully and fluidly captured with great dialogue, meaningful commentary on feeling/being different while also bringing in some historical perspective and contemporary culture. An empowering story about friendship and family.

I found the pacing of this novel a bit slow and the narrator a bit uncertain for my tastes, but I think readers of the intended age group will love it. It's also a rare middle grade book featuring POC characters in a distinctly suburban setting, which should give it value to other suburban POC readers and non-POC readers who could benefit from a POC story not set in a gritty urban environment (the unfortunate default setting for middle grade POC novels, it seems).

Ahhhh…that time of life when you move from elementary school to middle school. So many changes. Alberta and her best friend Laramie, along with the other sixth graders prepare to start middle school. However, that is not the only change that occurs that summer. There is a new family in town, on their street, and there is something unique about them. They are a black family. What makes this unique is that Ewing Beach does not contain a lot of black families. As a matter of fact, Alberta was the only black child in the sixth-grade class, but that is about to change as Edie comes on the scene.
What happens, though, when you introduce a new variable into an equation? Things change. The dynamics between Alberta and her friends undergo a metamorphosis, and not necessarily for the better. Add in the discovery of some old journals in the attic (Edie’s bedroom), and now there is a mystery to solve on top of everything else. Alberta and Edie work together to figure out who is who in the journals and stumble across a shocking secret as the same time.
The story is suspenseful, funny, and tender. It will remind you of the trials and tribulations of being a young person on the cusp of growing up. Friendship and turmoil are just two of things that abound in these pages. The story is still sweet and tender and will bring a smile to your face while reminding you of a simpler time when things seemed difficult. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book.

I really liked this middle-grade tale about a 12-year-old surfer named Alberta who is the only Black girl in town, until the new owners of the bed & breakfast across the street are revealed to be a Black woman and her daughter, Edie. Alberta has loved being young, enjoying life with her two dads in a sleepy CA beach town her whole life. Edie hails from Brooklyn, loves to dress in all black, wear dark lipstick, and drink coffee. While the two girls definitely have many differences, they find an old box of journals left behind in Edie’s attic and team up to figure out who they belong to. Several secrets and the dark history of how race has played a role in our country today are revealed.

It was great to see such diverse Black family structures, to have a Black protagonist who is a surfer girl, and to have these young girls really dive into the history of race in this country on a level appropriate and accessible for young people. I loved to see the development of the pre-teen characters (including secondary characters) and could relate to many of the experiences they went through as the only Black girls in their town.

I would definitely recommend this book to all young people, but as a Black woman, I would especially recommend it for young Black upper elementary/middle school-age girls. I would have LOVED to have something like this book when I was younger!

(Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for a digital copy of this book!)

It was a good book. It had more depth than your average middle grade novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Wow, Brandy Colbert is an amazing author. Her versatility in telling stories comes through especially with this middle-grade debut. I loved reading about Alberta and her family and the necessary friendship that grows between her and Edie. I was honored to interview Brandy for The Young Folks for a Black History Month feature with Jewell Parker Rhodes: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/books/140873/black-history-month-interview-jewell-parker-rhodes-brandy-colbert/

Alberta loves her small beach town, surfing, her art-loving fathers (Dad and Elliott), and butter-pecan ice cream. What she doesn't love? Being one of the few Black people in town. So she is thrilled when she learns that the new owners of the Bed and Breakfast are Black... and the daughter is exactly her age. Black lipstick-wearing, Brooklyn-native, Goth Edie isn't initially what Alberta expects, but the two become fast friends. Which is good, because Alberta's relationship with her best friend is on the rocks, and Alberta feels like she's being left behind as Laramie grows up. Add in some complicated feelings when her pregnant birth mother, Denise, comes to stay with Alberta and her fathers while her husband is out of the country for business, and Alberta's got a lot on her mind. And then Edie shows her a mysterious find in her attic bedroom: old journals from a mysterious woman named Constance. Who was she, and how did her journals end up in the B&B?

A fantastic book about finding your place, exploring the past, navigating complicated middle school friendships, and growing up in general, "The Only Black Girls in Town" is a delightful middle grade debut from Colbert, who has graced YA readers for years with her work. Alberta is such a sweet protagonist, and she works on learning how to stand up for herself, speak her mind, and be comfortable with who she is while figuring out how to move forward from the awkwardness of being a seventh grader.

Alberta is the only black girl in her town. She is also a surfer. She has two dads. This story was so heartwarming. I love all the characters in the story. I can relate to some of the characters. This story was so unpredictable. I really enjoyed how Alberta was a good friend and met no stranger. Edie, her new friend, brought the story to life with the journals. Didn't expect what happened but I give this book five stars. I really really enjoyed this YA book.

All kinds of families.! The main character, Alberta, an African American 7th grader is the daughter of two dads. Her neighbor and new friend, Edie, is living in a newly broken family. In addition to the focus on family, including a surprising family secret, this book accurately captures seventh grade issues: mean girls, the overwhelming desire to be popular, and first crushes.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3092187298

I adore Brandy Colbert's YA--both Little & Lion and Pointe were fantastic--so I was extremely pleased to see a middle grade offering from her, as well. Her casts are always diverse, and she attacks racism, sexism, prejudice, and stereotypes while also addressing family issues, bullying, and friendship.

Alberta's family is a black family in a mostly white town--in fact, she's the only black girl in her grade. (They are also a non-traditional family with two dads and a surrogate mom.) Her best friends are white and Hispanic, and while she loves them, she's excited when a new family moves to town with a black girl her age. The two become fast friends, but find that they are much more different than Alberta realized (one of my favorite phrases from Alberta's dad is "skinfolk aren't always kinfolk").

I know so many of my students are going to love this one--I hope Colbert continues to write middle grade stories along with her YA.

“Anything feels possible when I’m in the ocean, paddling out to catch a wave” (page 20 in an e-book ARC). Alberta loves to surf and is the best surfer at camp. However, when the coach praises her skills, Nicolette makes a racist comment; Nicolette makes racist remarks frequently, which is one reason Alberta is hurt and confused when her best friend Laramie starts hanging out more with Nicolette.

When Edie and her mom move into the Bed and Breakfast across the street from Alberta and her dads, Alberta is excited that she may have a new friend and that she will no longer be the only Black child in her grade. Edie and Alberta seem to not have much in common at first, but the two girls soon become friends; their friendship grows closer after Edie opens a box of old journals and uncovers a mystery.

Alberta is a delightful seventh grader who navigates various challenges throughout the course of this unputdownable book. I loved the close relationship Alberta has with her dads and the friendship she forms with Edie, as well as the setting in a small beach town. This is the first middle grades book I’ve read with a main character who is a vegetarian, so I enjoyed seeing that representation as well. The mystery is interesting and provides a vehicle for Alberta and Edie’s friendship to grow. This engaging, well-written book will appeal to many readers, especially those who love stories about friendship, family, and navigating middle school.

*I was provided with an e-book ARC by NetGalley in exchanged for an honest review.

This review is posted on Goodreads.

Alberta has always lived in Ewing Beach, California, a town that is almost all white, with her Dad and her other dad, Elliott. She's used to being the only black girl in her grade, so she's excited when new black neighbors move into the house that was Mrs. Harris' bed and breakfast. She imagines all of the different ways she can imagine the new girl, but Edie doesn't look like any of her ideas! Coming from Brooklyn, Edie dresses in a Goth fashion, complete with black lipstick, and doesn't even know how to swim, much less participate in Alberta's passion, surfing. Alberta and Edie get along fairly well, but Al is a little miffed when her best friend, Laramie, takes to Edie so quickly. Seventh grade is starting soon, and Alberta's problem with Laramie only grows when her friend starts hanging out with another neighbor, 8th graer Nicolette, who has always given Alberta a hard time and is very racist. There are a lot of things going on in Alberta's life, and soon she is dealing with the fact that her biological mother is going to live with her family for a while, since she is pregnant and her husband has to work away from home, and also with a pile of journals that she and Edie find in Mrs. Harris' attic. The journals are full of black history from 1955, and also an intriguing mystery. Alberta tries to navigate friend drama, problems with microagressions, personal identity issues AND the mystery of the woman named Constance who wrote the journals.

Strengths: My suburban students have asked for years for books with black characters who don't live in the inner city, and that's been an easier request to fill over the last several years. Alberta has a similar socioeconomic setting to Renee Watson's novels, although my students will be amazed that Alberta is the only black girl in her grade! (We are just shy of 25% African American students.) There are a lot of intriguing and well developed characters in the book, and I really appreciated the fact that Alberta and her dads were very serious vegetarians. Having Denise stay with the family gives Alberta a chance to connect with her. The mystery is surprisingly intricate, given everything else that is going on in the book, and the journal entries are just long enough to provided information without getting boring. I really enjoyed reading this one, and it's the sort of thing that I would have loved as a middle grade reader-- someone's ordinary life that is very different from mine. The surfing alone would have sold me!
Weaknesses: This would almost have been better as TWO books. Alberta's problems with friends, family, and her surfing would have made a perfectly captivating book all on their own, as would the mystery with the B&B. I enjoyed this so much that I would have been very happy to have two books.
What I really think: Definitely purchasing, and my students will be glad to have another great book with "drama" (a frequent request) that also includes some issues with race as well as black history.