Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe

LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET by Toya Wolfe is so evocative of a time and place, centering on a group of friends who live in public housing in Chicago in 1999. That was a period of transition for the neighborhood as well as for these four young adolescents, just 12 or 13: “Fe Fe” Stevens, Precious Brown, Stacia Buchanan, and newcomer “Tonya from the Ten,” a catalyst for change in the group. Initially, the girls spend carefree summer days – playing four square or Double Dutch jump rope, but gradually the violence of gang presence, worries over housing being lease compliant, and even sexual abuse invade their reality. Their paths diverge with some ending up “in the system” under foster care or having a brother sent to prison, while others move away and finish college. Years later, a chance reunion allows revisiting the events of that fateful summer. A very well-written debut novel, LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and from Booklist which called it a “fictional counterpart” to Dawn Turner’s Three Girls from Bronzeville. Book groups and literature circles will find much (poverty, racism, police action, Chicago politics, drug addiction, gang pressure, and family loyalty) to discuss and debate.