Book Description
for The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
The seemingly out-of-the-blue suicide of May’s older brother, basketball star and Princeton-bound Danny, just before graduation sends her Chinese American family into a downward emotional spiral. May’s return to attend junior year the following fall is eased by her best friend, Haitian American Tiya Marie, and Tiya Marie’s older brother, Marc. After a white parent’s diatribe blaming the increase in teen suicides on the ripple effect of Asian parents who put too much pressure on their children—referencing Danny without knowing anything about him or their family—May channels her rage into a poem that sparks a “#TakeBacktheNarrative” movement among BIPOC students at her school. There are also plans to protest the school’s new internship program, sponsored by the parent who made the racist remarks. May seeks support from several white students who claim to be allies but won’t commit to hard choices, and she is challenged to consider her own actions—or lack of—on issues that extend beyond her own family and community; she already knows she let Tiya Marie and Marc down when she didn’t understand the reasons behind a protest over the recent police killing of a Black boy. This insightful exploration of social justice activism, allyship, community, and commitment reveals it’s often messy and complicated and that everyone is learning. Running through it all are so many honest feelings about family and friendship, some of them a revelation, as well as May’s grief and her longing to understand why Danny took his own life. (Age 14 and older)
CCBC Choices 2023. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.