My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by I. Zoboi

Abstract

Zoboi, Ibi. My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. Penguin Random House, 2019.

My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich is Ibi Zoboi’s middle-grade debut, following her YA novels Pride and the National Book Award finalist American Street. Some of Zoboi’s concerns in her YA fiction are revisited here: Black community and communities, complexities of family relationships, and the difficulties and joys of discovering new places. Here Zoboi adds to the mix a quirky, sci-fi loving protagonist, and a historical setting: Harlem in the summer of 1984.

Ebony-Grace Norfleet Freeman (aka E-Grace Starfleet in her galactic "imagination location," aka Ice Cream Sandwich to the Nine Flavas crew of MCs and B-girls) is a seventh-grader from Huntsville who is sent to live with her father in New York City for the summer. She’s full of science fiction knowledge and enthusiasm, abetted by her Granddaddy, who worked for NASA and occupies a large role in her internal narrative as Captain Fleet.

Ebony-Grace is a somewhat frustrating protagonist, making a number of seeming unforced errors due to her commitment to her spacefaring alter ego, but she is authentic and compelling, too. Her insistence on being E-Grace Starfleet can be endearing, though she’s clearly using her imagination to avoid dealing with, or understanding, what’s happening around her. She describes her surroundings in terms of her space adventure: that Captain Fleet has been taken captive by the Sonic King on Planet Boom Box, and that the Sonic Boom threatens to overtake everything. Her new friends initially have little time for this kind of play; they’re busy developing their crew’s double-dutch, rapping and breakdancing skills in preparation for a competition that might get them into the big leagues. The culture-shock contrast, in other words, isn’t just between Huntsville and Harlem, but also between one kind of play and (although the Nine Flavas crew don’t see it like this) another; between childhood and adolescence.

A caution for readers who appreciate concreteness: one subplot seems ambiguous to the point of opacity. Ebony-Grace has been sent to New York because of some trouble her Granddaddy has gotten into, or possibly a health crisis he is having. There are allusions from adult characters to sins Ebony-Grace’s grandfather has committed, consequences for bad decisions, lawyers, and journalists. His death near the end of the novel leaves both Ebony-Grace and the reader with questions but little closure; veiled references imply a sex-and-drugs aspect to his troubles, or a connection to the AIDS crisis, but this is never clarified.

The narrative here is more atmospheric than propulsive, but that atmosphere is alive with culture and history. Character voices are lively, funny, and down to earth; their moment is depicted lovingly and specifically but without preciousness or nostalgia. This love letter to 1980s New York has mountains of appeal for any reader interested in science fiction or hip hop culture, and is a must for any collection looking to continue prioritizing diversity and representation in its holdings.

Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
Reviewer: Amanda Daignault 

Amanda Daignault is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. She studies contemporary children's middle-grade fantasy novels, using methods of book history and bibliography to figure out where all those giant trilogies came from and what they're doing.