Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Image from Barnes & Noble

Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005. Print. ISBN-13: 9780312332686. Hardcover. Cost: $13.99.

Awards:
-ALA ALEX Award
-Terry McMillan Young Author Award
-Hurston-Wright Foundation Debut Fiction finalist
-Audie Award for Literary Fiction (for audiobook version)

Annotation:
Young relationships can be hard to maintain. Doing it by letters because of a 10 year prison sentence makes it even harder.

Booktalk:
Antonio Lawrence and Natasha Riley have already had hard lives at 17 and 16 years old, but nothing in the ghettos of Harlem prepared either of them for being separated by bricks and bars, when Antonio is locked up for murdering his father. Their relationship is put to the test after the unexplained circumstances of Antonio’s abusive father’s death results in him taking the rap as an adult. Natasha wants to trust her boyfriend, but finds it difficult to keep up a relationship with an inmate who may or may not be guilty. Antonio tries to deal with prison life while keeping up his relationship, and both of them find they understand each other, but can’t always relate. Natasha has ambitions on the outside, while Antonio simply wants be outside with her.

From a letter to Antonio, dated January 11, 1991, on page 156, almost one year apart from each other.

I feel like these people expect me to have all these great plans like wanting to be a doctor or a lawyer or something else, but all I’m really trying to do right now is survive. You get what I’m saying? I know you feel me. If anybody knows a thing or two about surviving, it’s you.

Can these two teens survive the time and distance that separates them, or will their relationship falter as Natasha tries to find herself while Antonio is stuck Upstate? 

Excerpt from the audiobook version of Upstate