{"id":43430,"date":"2026-01-30T22:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43430"},"modified":"2026-01-30T22:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T03:13:05","slug":"review-of-we-deserve-monuments-by-jas-hammonds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43430","title":{"rendered":"Review of We Deserve Monuments, by Jas Hammonds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We Deserve Monuments<\/em><\/p>\n

By Jas Hammonds<\/p>\n

Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 375 pages.
\nReview written January 26, 2023, from a library book
\n2022 Capitol Choices Selection
\n2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

We Deserve Monuments<\/em> is about a Black lesbian teen named Avery who suddenly got uprooted from her home in DC at the start of her senior year of high school. Avery\u2019s grandmother is dying of cancer in rural Georgia, and her mother decided that the family needed to be with her \u2013 never mind that the last time they visited was when Avery was five.<\/p>\n

Mama Letty doesn\u2019t even seem glad to see them. She calls Avery \u201cFish\u201d because her lip ring makes her look like a fish on a hook. She\u2019s prickly and isn\u2019t exactly grateful for the family swooping down because she\u2019s dying.<\/p>\n

But other things go surprisingly well for Avery. The girl next door and her white friend take her under their wing, and she\u2019s quickly got better friends than she had in DC, including the girlfriend she recently broke up with.<\/p>\n

But there are complications. Avery learns for the first time about her grandfather who was killed by Klan members before her mother was born. And then it turns out those Klan members are related to her new white friend. And she is attracted to the girl next door, but has no reason to think those feelings are returned.<\/p>\n

All this is going on while she\u2019s trying to get to know Mama Letty, but learns about family trauma and hurt. And why can\u2019t her mother and grandmother ever have a conversation without fighting?<\/p>\n

I like the way the author shows us a family with lots of flaws but also lots of love.<\/p>\n

Jashammonds.com<\/a>
\nFiercereads.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/we_deserve_monuments.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Deserve Monuments By Jas Hammonds Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 375 pages. Review written January 26, 2023, from a library book 2022 Capitol Choices Selection 2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent Starred Review We Deserve Monuments is about a Black lesbian teen named Avery who suddenly got uprooted from her home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,21,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award-winners","category-contemporary","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43430"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46183,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43430\/revisions\/46183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}