About This Lesson
A lyrical novel-in-verse about coming of age in New York City during the ’80s. Alma’s life is a series of halfways: she’s half Chinese, half Jewish, her parents spend half the time fighting and the other half silent, and she’s halfway through becoming a woman. But as long as she can listen to her Walkman, hang out with her friends on the stoops of the Village, and ride her bike around the streets of New York, it feels like everything will be all right. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents divorce and—just like that—her life as she knew it is over. In this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, is Alma ready to press play on the soundtrack of her life?
