Her name is Jazmin

and like the music of her name, her life throbs and swings—a few flat notes to be sure, but also bursting with rich passages that rise and soar. Sitting on her stoop she fills her notebook with laughs, anger, and hope. There’s the risky lure of luscious-looking men and the consequences of free haircuts.

This is a fourteen-year-old so-real girl living in Harlem in the 1960s, born with clenched fists and big dreams, and strengthened by the love of a steadfast sister. Captured within pages of her tough, exuberant life are all the beauty, chaos, confusion, and clarity that accompany the excitement of exploring life’s possibilities—and discovering they are endless.