Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Saunders
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Adult recalls lost childhood neighborhood in poignant novel.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
When REMEMBER US begins, an 11-year-old girl named Sage meets a new boy in the neighborhood, Freddy. Sage and Freddy become fast friends because Freddy admires her skills at pickup basketball without judging her for being a girl with NBA dreams. They live in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, where dangerous fires happen regularly, with whole buildings burning to the ground and people displaced or killed. Sage's father has died, and her mother is saving money to move to a safer area. But Sage doesn't want to move, she wants to figure out who she is where she is, but things are changing so fast, and when the future comes, what will help her cope with the inevitable?
Is It Any Good?
This beautiful, poignant book which sets the universal themes of the end of childhood and loss of innocence in a specific moment in history. In Remember Us by Jacqueline Woodson, the author evokes a window of time from her own life in New York City in the 1970s, where life was both magical and unpredictably cruel. A particularly effective feature of the book is that the main character speaks from her emotions while the narrator subtly provides the broader context. This would be a fantastic book to spark conversation between the target-age reader and grandparents who were children or teens during this era, but really, this gem of a historical novel deserves a spot on every teen's bookshelf.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the human side of structural racism, as revealed in Remember Us. This story might spark a discussion of other similar incidents, such as Ocoee Massacre of 1920 and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921.
Discuss the theme of community in Remember Us. How does compassion help build relationships in the community? What kinds of shared experiences form the basis for empathy, and what happens when empathy becomes overwhelming? How can people support one another to persevere through hard times?
Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the perspective of an adult character?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Coming of Age
- Topics : Friendship , History
- Character Strengths : Compassion , Empathy , Perseverance
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Nancy Paulsen Books
- Publication date : October 10, 2023
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 10 - 13
- Number of pages : 192
- Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Awards : ALA Best and Notable Books , Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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