In the 1964 West Oakland, California kids didn’t get spankings—they got whuppins. Bernadine, the precocious eleven-year-old protagonist explains, “Whuppins were like kid taxes we paid with our behinds.”
Bernadine will do anything to avoid a whuppin. But she is willing to suffer a whuppin and more to help a little neighborhood girl escape who is being abused by her mother’s boyfriend.
West Oakland streets are mean. Bad kids lay in wait just inching to beat up kids like Bernadine. Vicious attack dogs roam the neighborhood. And nasty old men try to entice young girls into cars. But courageous Bernadine takes on the night to save another child in this very adult coming of age novel.
You may know Terris McMahan Grimes from her Theresa Galloway mystery series. Smelling Herself is written with the wit, insight into human nature, and poetic voice that readers of the series have come to expect.