English Dictionary

Woodson, with her tale of three pseudo-tough girls in Queens, cares less about plot than does Murphy, with her longer, more traditionally paced novel about two girls who toughen up by painting their faces with tribalesque “war paint” and learning by the end of the novel that part of growing up is living by one’s own axioms, the ones that come from experience: “Sometimes, you gotta believe something crazy,” Sarah says, to explain why she obstinately holds on to the idea that her mother, who left the family when she was 2, has turned into an actual fox.