I was initially very excited about this book, especially as a child of the 80s, but I found the style and narrator difficult to follow. As a teacher, I felt myself constantly trying to assess Ebony Grace - is she on the spectrum? Is the author trying to make a broader point about imaginative and socially awkward children? I found the shifting between reality and imagination somewhat disorienting, and while I understood all the oft-unexplained pop culture references, I imagine those might also throw off middle grade-aged readers. In the end, I had been hoping for much more than what this book delivered.

Young adult novel that is aimed at the same age group as Jason Reynolds, but it falls a little short. Set in the 1980s, in Alabama and New York City, the story follows Ebony-Grace Norfleet Freeman who leaves her mother and beloved grandfather in Alabama to spend a few weeks with her father in New York City. When her grandfather becomes ill, Ebony-Grace must stay in NYC, and face what she has avoided successfully by retreating into a fictional world she and her grandfather created--growing up. Some sections dragged on a little too much, and this nerdy child-now-adult thought Ebony-Grace's transition from her space fantasy to reality happened far too quickly. All the 1980s references were amusing to me, but would be meaningless to the targeted age group. I liked the comic book-style illustrations, but I wished they had furthered the story rather than recapitulated scenes we'd already read.

Ebony-Grace has a special relationship with her grandfather, who is one of a few African-Americans that works for NASA in Houston. Her parents are separated and Ebony-Grace is flown to New York to spend the summer in Harlem with her father. Ebony-Grace is seen as backwards and immature by the other girls her age in Harlem, she still wants to play make-believe and build space ships and they are into break dancing and double Dutch. Another plot line running through the story is that something is going on with her grandfather but the adults aren’t sharing. Will Ebony-Grace find her place in the changing world of adolescence?
MyLifeAsAnIceCreamSandwich #NetGalley #ARC

What a fun read! Ebony-Grace is full of imagination and uses that imagination to deal with the stress of leaving her beloved grandfather to go stay with her father in Harlem. I enjoyed all of the 1980s references to TV shows, movies, trends like break dancing, and the slang. Students will marvel at having to talk in the kitchen where the phone is connected to the wall! Readers who loved "One Crazy Summer" will see lots of similarities here with Ebony-Grace and will enjoy this story as well. Fans of graphic novels will like the pages that show the space story that Ebony-Grace concocts. Ultimately, this is a story of family, friendship, and finding your way in an unfamiliar place. All readers can relate to that. Netgalley and the publisher provided me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rising seventh-grader Ebony-Grace Norfleet Freeman (or, as she prefers, Cadet E-Grace Starfleet) is all about science fiction. In fact, she prefers her internal space life to the real world. Her grandfather was among the first black NASA engineers. He is now faced with issues shall we say. For this reason, Ebony is sent from her affluent Alabama family to stay with her working-class father in Harlem. She calls New York “No Joke City.” Ebony finds it impossible to fit in with neighborhood girls who are interested in double Dutch and Dapper Dan’s. Clever girl. She resorts to using her “imagination location” to create tales about rescuing her grandfather, the audacious Captain Fleet, a storyline illustrated in occasional unattributed comic strips.

I thought the premise of the book promising, but I found the storyline hard to follow. I really liked and had a heart for the main character. The book cover is very appealing and striking.

DNF AT 42%

I gave it my all but I just could not get into this story. I feel like I just didn’t get what in the world was happening with this little girl and her obsession with space. What’s even worse is that this is a middle grade book so it made me feel really dumb.

This was a hard book to review. As a librarian, I am always looking out for diverse, interesting books to share with my students. It is hard to separate reality and history from the "imagination location" of this realistic-fantasy story told by 12 year old Ebony Grace from Huntsville, Alabama.

The premise of the story is fantastic; the year is 1984, and Ebony Grace is visiting her father in Harlem for a week during summer vacation. The week long visit turns into a summer visit, as something mysterious is happening with her grandfather back in Huntsville. It's eluded that he is in legal trouble, but it is never clear how. Her grandfather is her hero, and throughout her life, he has encouraged her to live in the fantastic world of space, the final frontier by exploring her own imagination. Her father and mother have long been divorced, and she has been raised as a proper young southern girl in a quiet neighborhood in Huntsville. Her father's world is more rough and tumble; he owns a junkyard in Harlem and the neighborhood is loud and noisy and eclectic. The story is filled with fantastic descriptions of life in Harlem in the 1980's; rap music, break-dancing, Harlem resident's fighting for equality, not just because of race and poverty, but also because of gender roles (boys are taken more seriously than girls when it come's to break-dancing). Ebony-Grace learns much about herself and who she is meant to be, but the journey there is super confusing.

The story is filled with graphic novel elements from Ebony's imagination location, as she journey's through space with Captain Fleet on the star ship Uhura. It's clear enough, yet not. At times it seems that E Grace (as she calls herself) is unable to separate imagination from reality. When she is lost in her imagination the story becomes difficult to follow, with a lot of sci-fi references that are hard to comprehend. She is socially awkward and abrasive to the girls in the Harlem neighborhood, and they, in turn, cannot relate to her. The references to the music and dance moves are important and historic to the times, but they are shown through E Grace's uninformed eyes without a need to understand or explore a broader world. It is hard to explain the confusion, because at the end it does become clear; the growth Ebony experiences, and the lessons she learns about life and herself. As an adult I understand these concepts. I am not so sure the intended audience will.

I truly love the idea of this book. It is one I will buy for my library to share with students interested in both sci fi/fantasy and a bit of what it was like for kids during the turbulent 1980s in Harlem. It may be more of regional interest to students, and it may also appeal to students who love history of dance and rap.

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi is a quirky but interesting story. Ebony Grace lives with her mom and grandfather (who works at NASA) in Alabama. She is sent to Harlem to spend some time with her father. This is so different from the life she was used to in Alabama. She is a Star Wars and Star Trek fan and her imagination is where she spends most of her time. There are interesting parts to this story that will keep the reader’s interest and at other times may cause some confusion. It will definitely make the reader pause and think. Overall, a good choice for a classroom library. Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hede:
Space: the first frontier in Ibi Zoboi's middle-grade debut 'My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich'

Ibi Zoboi’s debut and National Book Award-finalist YA novel, “American Street,” explored magical realism and the voodoo culture in a narrative about a Haitian teen whose mother is detained as they immigrate to America.

The novelist’s first middle grade offering is not that type of story.

Zoboi’s “My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich” (Dutton Books For Young Readers), is as realistic as the grit on the New York City streets on which the story takes place. And despite the black and white of the title confection, it isn’t a story about color. It’s about flavor, or “flava” as the street kids use the term, and the kids who have it, and the kids who don’t.

Pre-teen Ebony-Grace Norfleet, aka Space Cadet E-Grace Starfleet, does has flava when she’s sent from the home of her cherished rocket scientist grandfather in Huntsville, Ala. (home of Homer Hickam’s ‘Rocket Boys,’ to which this novel pays silent homage). Yet it’s not a taste that the inner-city kids in Harlem would recognize and what results is not only Ebony’s regulation to the nondescript ice cream treat, but outlier-status to the Ten Flavas and a retreat into her imagination where she’s a space cadet on a mission to rescue her grandfather from a mysterious force conspiring against the pair.

About that force: Ebony’s grandfather’s work and education once deferred a sense of respect on her family in Huntsville, but that is called in to question by actions that Zoboi keeps cleverly disguised until the novel’s denouement. Now, it is those actions which set Ebony’s coming-of-age tale in motion as she is sent to live with her mechanic-father in Harlem. It is there, a place Ebony calls "No Joke City," where he will attempt to school his estranged daughter in the ways of the streets he’s called home since boyhood.

But life in Harlem for a sheltered girl from Alabama is light-years away from anything Ebony has ever known. And by summer’s end, she’ll be faced with making the leap from a girl who lives in the stars to one who’s grounded in reality.

Zoboi shows real skill in developing character and familial relationships with this novel. If you’ve ever been 12, you’ll recognize and welcome Ebony’s story.

In the space of a couple of hundred pages, Zoboi fills the darkness of pre-teen’s upset home with the light of understanding, acceptance and friendship.

I had trouble relating to the narrator in this story as her imagination so often intertwined with the real world, I wasn't always sure what was going on. Ebony Grace is taken from her secluded childhood in Alabama and dropped into Harlem for the summer and all the adults just expect her to be able to relate to the kids who live on the block, but life is so different that Ebony Grace has a difficult time interacting with the kids. I loved the nerdy aspects of the story - Ebony Grace's love of Star Wars and Star Trek, but would really like to see a completed book before making any decisions.

This is the story of Ebony-Grace, a girl from Alabama who is sent to stay with her father in Harlem for the summer. Her parents aren't together, and she was living with her mother and grandfather, who works at NASA in Huntsville. E-Grace love space and science fiction and gets lost in her imagination. The only person who supports her interests is her grandfather...and then she is sent away.

Ebony-Grace seems non-neurotypical, but adults don't seem to address it. Other kids call her names, like crazy and Outer Space Ebony-Grace. Since this story takes place in the 80's, it could be that there wasn't the language, since she's obviously intelligent.

My only disappointment is it seemed to wrap up really quickly, like in the last 10% of the book. I can also see that it might be confusing to some kids since so much of E-Grace's story take place in her imagination.

I loved that it took place in NYC during the mid-80's. It brought back so many memories between the music and the graffiti and the wardrobe!

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This is a case of a book that I didn’t particularly enjoy but I think lots of kids will. The story is well written, it’s a great depiction of a strong girl interested in science struggling to figure out how to resolve her individuality with how to exist in a community. I liked the inclusion of the Star Wars and Star Trek references intermingled with hip hop, break dancing and double dutch. It was cool to be shown a part of history in a specific time and place and I will definitely buy it for my library.

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Ebony Grace Norfleet has lived in Birmingham, Alabama for as long as she can remember, with her mother and her grandfather, one of the first black engineers at NASA. Her grandfather, Jeremiah, is her best friend, and using their "imagination locations" they go on all sorts of outer space adventures together as E-Grace Starfleet and Captain Fleet. But during the summer of 1984, when there's trouble with Jeremiah, Ebony Grace is sent to live with her father in Harlem, a city with lights and sounds and people that all seem like aliens on a different planet compared to the quiet country town she's from.

Ebony Grace refuses to come out of her "imagination location," much to the aggravation of everyone around her — her father, her would-be friends, church folk, and more. Ebony wants to build a rocket ship, fly off to save her grandfather, and get out of this "No Joke City" as fast as she can, and from the moment she arrives, that's what she plots to do, leading to all sorts of problems along the way.

What I Liked:

I absolutely loved Zoboi's debut, the young adult novel American Street, which I read just a couple of months ago, and so I was eager to read how she handles middle grade fiction. My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich is infused with the personality, creativity, and richly detailed characters I've come to expect from Zoboi's writing. Ebony Grace's struggle with shedding childhood is intricately shown. She lived a sheltered, privileged life down in Alabama and wasn't exposed to either the beauty or ugliness of a place like Harlem. The girls she meets in New York have had to grow up fast and Zoboi does an excellent job of showing the reader this through Ebony Grace's eyes, even though Ebony Grace can't see it herself. To her, these girls just have no imagination location and are "little street urchins" she should stay away from, according to her mother.

But what Ebony Grace comes to learn is that imagination looks different on different people, and just because these girls don't care about outer space or Star Trek doesn't mean they aren't just as imaginative and creative as she is — it's just going to look different on them.

What I didn't like:

Ebony Grace was a frustrating narrator. Because she is locked in her imagination location for almost the entirety of the book, we see a skewed and often confusing unfolding of events. At times, it was difficult to understand what was really happening from reading Ebony Grace's interpretation, and I wished we could step outside her head once in awhile to get better clarity on what was actually going on.

Compounding the confusion was that Ebony Grace's imagination location is multi-layered. She is an astronaut exploring strange lands and trying to save Captain Fleet from the evil Sonic King who has him trapped on Planet Boom Box. She is also a prisoner trapped with her father, the evil King Sirius Julius on the planet No Joke City. She flip flops between these two similar filters in describing everything and everyone around her and it made for tough reading at times as I tried to remember what was what.

The plot with her grandfather felt underdeveloped and unresolved. At the beginning of the book, the reader is led to believe that Ebony Grace is being sent up to Harlem because there is "trouble" with her grandfather. It's hinted that this trouble has something to do with his job at NASA, or that maybe it has to do with his fondness for the ladies. At one point early on, when Ebony Grace first gets to Harlem, her father sits her down and tells her she doesn't need to be keeping her grandfather's secrets for him. What??? Ebony Grace is confused by this comment, as was I. And those types of hints are never resolved.

Because of Ebony Grace's limits as a first person narrator, and perhaps her own inability to process what is happening, she isn't able to articulate what is really going on with her grandfather, so it isn't until the last 10 pages or so of the book that we finally find out what the "trouble" actually is. And because what was really happening doesn't appear to have anything to do with what was hinted at throughout the rest of the book, it felt abrupt, with no time to have any sort of emotional reaction to the reveal.

Another aspect left unresolved was the havoc Ebony Grace wreaked on her father's Harlem neighborhood. She behaves pretty badly throughout the book, mouthing off to adults, purposefully injuring the one girl who tries to be nice to her, stealing, and more, but there are no consequences for these actions other than that she further isolates herself from everyone around her and recedes deeper into herself. By book's end, she's on a plane back down South, still locked in her imagination location. Her growth as a character throughout the book was incremental at best, and stagnant at worst.

Lastly, the adults in the book were all infuriating. Her larger-than-life grandfather is barely present in the book, and as stated above, the entire plot line with him (which was supposed to be the driver of the book) is confusing and left me with more questions than answers. Ebony Grace's parents both come across as incredibly selfish and rather heartless, as the only thing they seem able to agree on is keeping Ebony Grace away from her grandfather. If this had been for any of the reasons hinted at throughout the book, it would be understandable, but when the real reason is revealed, it just renders her parents unforgivable, at least for me. Ebony Grace displays very little emotion about anything that happens to her, so it was hard to judge how she felt about what transpired.

Some of the other reviewers have mentioned that they kept thinking there was going to be a mental illness angle in this book, that Ebony Grace was going to be revealed to have autism, and this would be something the characters would have to navigate throughout the book. This was not the case, and I don't believe that was ever the author's intent, though it would have explained a lot about Ebony Grace's actions and inability to connect with those around her.

For me, it felt like the author was trying to show that awkward transition from girlhood to teenagehood and how different circumstances lead different people to make that leap at different times and in different ways. At 12, the girls in Harlem are already behaving like teenagers, caring about things like boys and clothes, while Ebony Grace at 12 is still all about make believe. I think her refusal to come out of her imagination location was her way of dealing with the situation she'd been thrust into that summer — being away from her grandfather (the only person in her life who seems to understand or appreciate her at all), being in a new and overwhelming city with a father she barely knows, and being a rather lonely child in general, with no friends back home and no friends in Harlem.

Mostly, I spent the book feeling more sorry for Ebony Grace than anything else. Yes, she was frustrating, but mostly she was unable to see how her actions were hurting the people around her, and her lack of growth left me disappointed.

I appreciated the creativity of the book, and that it wasn't like anything else I've ever read before. The nods to Star Trek created a very nostalgic feeling for me personally, as I spent my childhood watching that show with my dad. The world-building of 1980s Harlem was beautifully done, and the city felt like its own character come to life. But overall, this was mostly a frustrating read and I wanted more for Ebony Grace than either the people around her or she herself would allow her to have.

This is a quirky book about a little girl who spends her days in her mind/imagination to escape. Her life is upheaved when she moves to Harlem to live with her father. Ebony Grace has a very active imagination and is into science fiction, which is referenced quite heavily. I enjoyed the 1980s setting, being a child of that era, but I did struggle a bit with Ebony-Grace's narrative. This is a book targeted at middle grades, but due to the rambling nature of Ebony-Grace's narrative, I would recommend to a higher level thinker/reader for this.

This is a difficult book for me to review. I absolutely love Ibi Zoboi's YA titles, but I had a difficult time with this book. The year is 1984 and Ebony-Grace is a twelve year old who lives in Huntsville, Alabama with her mother and grandfather. She has a close relationship with her grandfather, who is an engineer for NASA, and they have a rich imaginary story where they travel in space and conquer evil. Ebony-Grace is sent to spend the summer with her father in Harlem, where she is used to only spending a few weeks. Harlem is the land of break dancing and hip-hop and Ebony-Grace doesn't fit in. She doesn't want to be part of the neighborhood, but return to her grandfather. I loved that Ebony-Grace wanted to stay true to her true-self, but she was such a brat! She is disrespectful to her father, and does not open herself up to new experiences. I feel her close relationship with her grandfather was detrimental to Ebony-Grace as it seemed that the bad guy created by her grandfather sounds suspiciously like Ebony-Grace's father, who is doing the best he can to become a DJ and run a junk yard that supports those in his community that are unable to afford the basics, or might just need a little extra help between paychecks. In middle grade novels, there should be some kind of journey, whether it be an actual journey or one of growth. Neither of those happen in this novel. Ebony-Grace does not grow - instead the novel is more small vignettes of life in Harlem as seen from an outsider who doesn't appreciate hip-hop, break dancing, double dutch (and she has a very derogatory opinion of all of it.) It isn't until the very end that Ebony-Grace has an epiphany about her father, but it was sudden and without any background. The most frustrating part for me was not knowing what was going on in Huntsville that compelled her mother to send her to Harlem for the whole summer - as a reader you know it has to do with the grandfather, but no further explanation, which do to the closeness of their relationship and the tenacity of her personality - it shocked me that Ebony-Grace didn't do more to find out what was going on.

Ebony-Grace is not your typical Alabama middle school kid. She's a bona fide Star Trek fan who lives out each day as if she is on a planetary mission. This summer her mission is in Harlem where her dad lives. Her dad knows she's an oddball and pays kids to be her friend. She drives all of them nuts with her Starfleet role playing. She can't seem to turn it off long enough to have a normal conversation with anyone.

The constant role playing completely interrupted the flow of the story and prevented me from forming any kind of attachment to the main character. If a kid acted that way when I was in middle school I would have stayed as far away as I could. It's totally weird. I have no idea what message the author was trying to convey.

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

I loved the cover of this new middle grade novel set in mid-1980's Harlem which prompted me to request the title. Ebony-Grace is quite the character and I really wanted to like her, but found her to be quite irritating. Her imagination and space adventures were impressive, but became obsessive and repetitive. The author most definitely helped me to feel like I really was in Harlem listening to that rap and hip hop. Perhaps I need to be a Trekkie to truly appreciate this one.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Space Cadet E-Grace Starfleet is on a dangerous mission to rescue her beloved captain from the evil Sonic King. Or, as her mother puts it, Ebony-Grace is being sent to Harlem to live with her Daddy for a week while Momma and Granddaddy are busy. The riotous sights and sounds of NYC in the '80s are torture for neurodiverse Ebony-Grace. She's used to the slower pace of Alabama and the comforting scfi worlds conjured by her beloved grandfather, who works for NASA. She struggles with everything from making friends to casual sexism. Vibrant setting, but E-Grace is a frustrating protagonist.

Ebony-Grace has been sent to stay with her dad over the summer while things settle down with her grandfather. She is not happy about it at all especially as it interferes with the imaginary world she and her grandfather have created. Her grandfather works for NASA and has instilled in Ebony a love of Star Trek (Uhura especially) and other science fiction. The problem is, her imagination can make her seem weird to others so it's hard for her to make friends. Can she save the world and get back to her grandfather?
The theme of growing up - especially growing up at different rates - was strong in this. I loved the setting of Harlem in the mid 80s. I had a hard time with the grandfather subplot because it was never fully explained what happened to him. I felt the ending was really abrupt as well.

I loved both American Street and Pride...so when I saw Ibi Zoboi had written a middle-grade novel, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. Ebony-Grace is quirky (and quite possible on the spectrum), and her space-obsessed personality makes for an interesting narrative voice...but there is just SO MUCH space. Ebony-Grace prefers to live in her fantasy world, and often overlays that world onto real-life experiences...which I think is going to be very confusing for the target audience. The story-line with Ebony-Grace's grandfather is also vague and confusing, and not explored in enough depth for me to really care.

I did love the setting--Harlem in the early crazy/cool 1980's. Zoboi does an amazing job of bringing it to life and making the city seem like a living, breathing being