EB & FLOW by Kelly J. Baptist

 

Flow insists he doesn't hit girls, but when a girl messes with the shoes his dad gave him, it is too much to take. 

Ebony "Eb" says she can't help it when someone calls her a name; she is going to take care of it and getting in trouble won't stop her.

Eb and Flow are both suspended for 10 days. Eb's granny is fed up, and Flow's mom makes sure he has plenty of chores to do while he's home. Both of them are pretty much cut off from their friends since being suspended means no phones and no gaming. That means there is plenty of time to work on the homework teachers send home and to contemplate what they both did wrong.

Home life has challenges for both of them. Their dads are both absent. Flow worries because his dad is deployed and phone calls from him are rare. Eb's dad moved to Texas and her mom has sent the kids to live with granny. Eb wishes more than anything that her mom would come home. There are sibling tensions and money worries in both households that also work to complicate life.

Written in verse, EB & FLOW, is told in alternating voices. Readers see into the lives of both characters and learn what makes them tick. As a middle school teacher, author Kelly J. Baptist is familiar with kids fighting and all life stresses that contribute to behavior problems at school. Readers both young and old will easily relate to the lives of the two star characters as they see their stories unfold.