My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich
By Barbara Saunders,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Tween uses vivid imagination to cope in confusing novel.
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What's the Story?
In MY LIFE AS AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH, 12-year-old Ebony-Grace leaves her home in Huntsville, Alabama, to spend a summer in Harlem with her father. In Huntsville, she lives with her mother and grandfather; he was one of NASA's first black engineers, but now he's in some sort of trouble. At her father's house in Harlem, E-Grace experiences culture shock in "No Joke City," as she calls New York, which is on the cusp of the hip-hop boom. She struggles with fitting in, navigating the tensions between her father and uncle, and homesickness for her beloved grandfather. E-Grace's primary coping mechanism is a fantasy world ("imagination location") that she and her grandfather created together. At the center of those fantasies are Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura and Nichelle Nicols, the actor who portrays her.
Is It Any Good?
Author Ibi Zoboi does a good job conjuring up the 1980s, but some of the nostalgic detail may be out of reach for the target audience. A 12-year-old reader in 2019 may not understand a joke about the song "Ebony and Ivory" or appreciate the irony of E-Grace's excitement when Ronald Reagan announces the plan to put a teacher in space. Even the Star Trek references may be obscure to some young readers. Also difficult is the way E-Grace floats in and out of her fantasies. It's hard to tell whether Zoboi intends her to be a girl with a vivid imagination or whether she might have a developmental or neurological disorder; that makes it challenging to figure out what My Life as An Ice Cream Sandwich's message is.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how who E-Graces seees as a rolel model in My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She looks to both the fictional Uhura and real-life actor Nichelle Nicols for inspiration and aspiration. How does E-Grace relate to the two women differently?
When she feels stressed, E-Grace retreats into an imagined world. Can you think of some other ways she could have handled conflicts?
My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich is set in 1984. What are some things you notice about how the kids' lives then were different from your life today?
Book Details
- Author: Ibi Zoboi
- Genre: Family Life
- Topics: STEM , Magic and Fantasy , Friendship
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: September 6, 2019
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 10 - 18
- Number of pages: 256
- Available on: Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: April 8, 2020
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