Rebecca, not Becky : a novel

Struggling to adjust to the upper-crust white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia, De'Andrea Whitman is challenged by her therapist to make a white girlfriend and finds one in Rebecca Myland as they are brought together to fight back against the community's rising racial sentiments.

De'Andrea Whitman, her husband Malik, and their five-year-old daughter, Nina, are new to the upper-crust white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia--a move motivated by circumstance rather than choice. De'Andrea is heartbroken to leave her comfortable life in the Black oasis of Atlanta, and between her mother-in-law's Alzheimer's diagnosis, her daughter starting kindergarten, and the overwhelming whiteness of Rolling Hills, she finds herself struggling to adjust to her new community. To ease the transition, her therapist proposes a make a white girlfriend. When Rebecca Myland learns about her new neighbors, the Whitmans, she's thrilled. As chair of the Parent Diversity Committee at her daughters' school, she's championed racial diversity in the community--and what could be better than a brand-new Black family? It's serendipitous when her daughter, Isabella, and Nina become best friends on the first day of kindergarten. Now, Rebecca can put everything she's learned about antiracism into practice--especially those oh-so-informative social media posts. And finally, the Parent Diversity Committee will have some... well, diversity. Following her therapist's suggestion, De'Andrea reluctantly joins Rebecca's committee. The painfully earnest white woman is so overly eager it makes De'Andrea wonder if Rebecca's therapist told her to make a Black friend! But when Rolling Hill's rising racial sentiments bring the two women together in common cause, they find it isn't the only thing they have in common. . . .

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	FICTION PLA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	FICTION PLA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi)	FICTION PLA	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In the vein of Such a Fun Age, a whip-smart, compulsively readable novel about two upper-class stay-at-home mothers--one white, one Black--living in a "perfect" suburb that explores motherhood, friendship, and the true meaning of sisterhood amidst the backdrop of America's all-too-familiar racial reckoning.

When Rebecca Myland learns about her new neighbors, the Whitmans, she's thrilled. As chair of the Parent Diversity Committee at her daughters' school, she's championed racial diversity in the community--and what could be better than a brand-new Black family It's serendipitous when her daughter, Isabella, and Nina become best friends on the first day of kindergarten. Now, Rebecca can put everything she's learned about antiracism into practice--especially those oh-so-informative social media posts. And finally, the Parent Diversity Committee will have some... well, diversity.

Following her therapist's suggestion, De'Andrea reluctantly joins Rebecca's committee. The painfully earnest white woman is so overly eager it makes De'Andrea wonder if Rebecca's therapist told her to make a Black friend! But when Rolling Hill's rising racial sentiments bring the two women together in common cause, they find it isn't the only thing they have in common. . . .

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Children's author Platt (the Frankie & Friends series) teams up with filmmaker Greene for an incisive story of two stay-at-home moms, one Black, one white, whose complex friendship roils their northern Virginia suburb. De'Andrea Whitman, a former lawyer, misses her old friends in Atlanta after moving to Rolling Hills, and has little interest in befriending the white mothers at her daughter's school. One of them, Rebecca Myland, means well ("Rebecca was NOT a Becky," the authors write with a mix of irony and sympathy, referencing the meme about angry racist white women), but she routinely and obliviously offends the few parents of color. De'Andrea's therapist picks up on De'Andrea's hostility toward white women and encourages her to befriend one. She begrudgingly agrees and accepts a Diversity Book Club invitation from Rebecca, though she ends up bonding instead with two Asian American women. Eventually, De'Andrea and Rebecca find common cause in an effort to remove a Confederate monument from a local park, and as their crusade reaches a boiling point, members of each of their families are affected in surprising ways. The authors carefully demonstrate how each of the protagonists is hampered by preconceived notions of the other, and the social satire smoothly evolves into a propulsive page-turner. Fans of Such a Fun Age ought to check this out. (Dec.)This review has been updated with further information.

Kirkus Review

Two wealthy stay-at-home moms, one Black and one white, deal with the complexities of race. " 'Only three more weeks of being Black and bougie with my besties!' De'Andrea wailed. 'Then I'll be living among the Whites, and be stuck dealing with Karens and Beckys and all their caucasity!' " In order to be close to her mother-in-law in a high-end memory-care facility, former corporate lawyer De'Andrea Whitman and her ultra-hot, super successful husband, Malik, are moving to Rolling Hills, a gated community in Virginia where they will be the only Black people--except for the security guys working the gate. Her Atlanta friends later joke that the family they saw shopping during their tour with the realtor were "Negroes-for-Hire," staged to deceive them. Chapters alternate between De'Andrea, written in exuberant style, and the other protagonist, an earnest, anxious, to-do-list-obsessed white woman named Rebecca Myland. Not Becky, as she keeps reminding people--and, in fact, the pejorative meaning of the nickname doesn't fit her. She's well aware of her privilege even if her husband doesn't get it. She chairs the diversity committee at the nearly all-white elementary school and is about to lead a charge to remove a Confederate statue from the local park. She's eager to get De'Andrea involved, though De'Andrea would really rather not, and she's not dying to join Rebecca's book club, either--but her therapist has directed her to make at least one white friend in Rolling Hills, challenging De'Andrea to overcome her extremely unabashed distaste. Then the two women's daughters fall in mad kindergarten love and there's no stopping it--the distance between them must narrow. At its best when having savvy fun with stereotypes and the sub rosa operations of female social networks. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

De'Andrea Whitman, a successful lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mother, moves with her husband and five-year-old daughter to the upper-class town of Rolling Hills, Virginia, to be closer to De'Andrea's mother-in-law after an Alzheimer's diagnosis. The Whitmans, who have left their support system behind in Atlanta, soon discover that they are the only Black family in Rolling Hills. Their neighbor, Rebecca Myland, a white stay-at-home mom, is desperate to introduce racial diversity to the almost-all-white Parent Diversity Committee at Magnolia Country Day School and to make Black friends in the process. When Rebecca's daughter befriends De'Andrea's on the first day of kindergarten, Rebecca recruits De'Andrea for the committee. What follows is racial-justice reckoning through the points of view of the two Rolling Hills mothers who come together with a common cause and gain renewed perspectives on friendship, motherhood, and race. Rebecca, Not Becky is a timely confrontation of white privilege and an astute, at times humorous exploration of the conversations Americans are having surrounding race and racial justice, all through the lens of two mothers who are managing kindergarteners, marriages, and their own waylaid desires and dreams. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Building on the success of Christine Pride and Jo Piazza's cowritten novels, You Were Always Mine and We Are Not Like Them, this dual-perspective story is sure to find an enthusiastic audience.

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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