A quietly beautiful coming-of-age story from a master storyteller. Eleven-year-old Valena lives in both the present and the past as she struggles with racism in her daily life and listens to and learns from her mother’s tales of her family's proud history. Moving backward and forward in time, these pieces of Valena's life blend to form an extraordinary portrait of the ties that bind her family together over generations. Virginia Hamilton has deftly woven together moments in one family's history into a seamless and poignant masterpiece.