American Street by Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Reviewed by: EPL
Young Adult
Title: American Street
By: Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Published: 2017
Call #: YA Fiction Zoboi. I
Fabiola “Fabulous” Toussaint and her mother were on a plane to America from Haiti with the hopes of a better life; however, those plans were derailed when Fabiola who is a US citizen gets through customs and her mother does not. Fabiola has arrived alone in Detroit, a new world, with new slang, ruthless vagabonds, three cousins who have changed both physically and mentally since they last talked plus an aunt who resembles her mother who demands that she speaks only English in her house.
As Fabiola begins to adjust to her new surroundings, a wave of guilt comes over her because while she enjoys life in the “land of the free” her mother is still in a holding cell waiting to be sent back to Haiti. In her attempts to rescue her mother, Fabiola becomes involved in some very precarious activities with some very treacherous people, including the local drug “king pin.” American Street is a beautifully written novel detailing the lengths a family is willing to go to stay together and the struggles of an immigrant trying to find her place in a foreign world.
