My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich

Product Description

National Book Award-finalist Ibi Zoboi makes her middle-grade debut with a moving story of a girl finding her place in a world that’s changing at warp speed.

Twelve-year-old Ebony-Grace Norfleet has lived with her beloved grandfather Jeremiah in Huntsville, Alabama ever since she was little. As one of the first black engineers to integrate NASA, Jeremiah has nurtured Ebony-Grace’s love for all things outer space and science fiction—especially 
Star Wars and 
Star Trek. But in the summer of 1984, when trouble arises with Jeremiah, it’s decided she’ll spend a few weeks with her father in Harlem.
 
Harlem is an exciting and terrifying place for a sheltered girl from Hunstville, and Ebony-Grace’s first instinct is to retreat into her imagination. But soon 126th Street begins to reveal that it has more in common with her beloved sci-fi adventures than she ever thought possible, and by summer’s end, Ebony-Grace discovers that Harlem has a place for a girl whose eyes are always on the stars.

A New York Times Bestseller

Review

A New York Times Bestseller

“[Ebony-Grace’s] boundless faith in her dreams also brings to mind another high-flying science enthusiast who once advised, ‘Never be limited by other people’s imaginations.’ That speaker was Mae C. Jemison, an engineer, medical doctor, astronaut, and the first African American woman to go into space.”—
New York Times Book Review 

“Filled with rich imaginative scenes and comics-style illustrations, this book will truly transport its readers to another world.”-
-Booklist

“Highlights the importance of imagination and learning to celebrate what it means to be different in a world that demands conformity.”-
-Horn Book

“Zoboi excels at resurrecting 1980s Harlem in her middle grade debut, expertly sprinkling in nostalgia-fueled references to break dancing, rap battles, and the rise of female MCs.”—
Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Ibi Zoboi is a
New York Times-bestselling author of books for children and young adults. Her debut novel,
 American Street, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She holds an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Born in Haiti and raised in New York City, she now lives with her family in New Jersey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

An excerpt from My Life as an Ice Cream SandwichChapter 1
These clouds are a concrete wall! The airplane won’t push past the gray and blue to reach the endless black called outer space. So I have to take control.
I press my back against the seat, push up my glasses, close my eyes, and pretend the plane is aiming for the stars and planets and the very edge of our galaxy. The seatback in front of me is the control board, and I press button after button as the plane blasts through the concrete sky and becomes the Mothership Uhura. It’s star date 06.23.1984 and I’m now E-Grace Starfleet, space cadet, on a mission to rescue the great and wise Captain Fleet!
“I’m coming for you, Captain Fleet!” I whisper to myself.
The clouds part as the Uhura achieves Earth’s orbit. Then, in just a few milliseconds, I calculate the hyperspace jump all the way out to Andromeda. This part sometimes makes me queasy because warp speed forces time and space to squeeze my whole body—along with this morning’s breakfast rolling around in my belly—into an opening smaller than the eye of a needle. I’ve never thrown up while on the MothershipUhura. Until now.
Someone touches my shoulder, and I blink right back into the present, back onto this American Airlines Boeing 727, headed for New York City.
“Are you all right, honey?” the stewardess asks. “You look a little sick.”
I shake my head because my stomach is a whirling black hole ready to spew out long lost spacecraft and missing astronauts. The stewardess hands me a bag just in time and up come Momma’s grits and cheese and ham and eggs.
There’s nothing more human than throwing up.
Suddenly, I don’t feel like Space Cadet E-Grace Starfleet any