{"id":7655,"date":"2016-10-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=7655"},"modified":"2016-10-23T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T14:48:13","slug":"bright-lights-dark-nights-by-stephen-emond-book-review-challenging-times-for-first-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=7655","title":{"rendered":"Bright Lights, Dark Nights, by Stephen Emond (book review) – challenging times for first love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bookHe’s white, she’s black,
\nFoo Fighters<\/a> fans, first love delights!
\nTheir friends and family? not so happy…<\/p>\n

Until scintillating Naomi comes into Walter’s very dull urban life, he hadn’t really worried about girls before. Complicates things a bit, that she’s little sister of his pal for all things comic books and rap. <\/p>\n

Shouldn’t be a big issue that they’re an interracial couple in these days, but then his cop dad is reprimanded for racial profiling<\/a> and decides to present his side of the case on social media…<\/p>\n

Read chapter one here<\/a> (without the artwork, alas) courtesy of the publisher, then check out the story in all its duality – black and white, love and anger, words and art, urban smooth and suburban entrenchment, personal responsibility and anonymous attacks – at your local library<\/a> or independent bookstore<\/a>, as hardcover or new August 2016 paperback.<\/p>\n

When to stand together in the face of society’s obstacles?
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0 Bright Lights, Dark Nights \/ Stephen Emond. Roaring Brook, 2015 (hardcover); 2016, Square Fish (paperback). [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: A racial profiling scandal gone viral imperils the new relationship between Walter and Naomi, as his white cop dad ‘tries too hard’ to solve vandalism in their grim urban neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Why can’t they just enjoy the Foo Fighters’ music and start falling toward being in love?
\nShouldn’t being an interracial couple just be normal now?
\nHow does the old news of his parents’ divorce become a new crisis?<\/p>\n

Dealing with guys who think Naomi should stay with her old friends, with his family’s ingrained racism louder than ever, and with Dad’s sudden insistence on clearing his name on social media, Walter isn’t sure of himself or of Naomi’s affection, then things really get tough.<\/p>\n

Bright Lights, Dark Nights<\/em> is an illustrated story of first love, music, self-respect, classic movies, and finding your place in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He’s white, she’s black, Foo Fighters fans, first love delights! Their friends and family? not so happy… Until scintillating Naomi comes into Walter’s very dull urban life, he hadn’t really worried about girls before. Complicates things a bit, that she’s little sister of his pal for all things comic books and rap. Shouldn’t be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,19],"tags":[163,124,22,4,75,11,20,5,70,16,87,18,40,44,46,43,39,49,184,86,193,15,9,21,57,35,3,53,8],"class_list":["post-7655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diverse-books","category-fiction","tag-african-american","tag-art","tag-behavior","tag-belonging","tag-brothers","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-crime","tag-determination","tag-divorce","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-funny","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-memories","tag-mothers","tag-music","tag-prejudice","tag-relationships","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-sisters","tag-surprises","tag-teens","tag-us-artist","tag-us-author"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7655"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8080,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7655\/revisions\/8080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}