review: The Family I’m In

REVIEW

selection from THE FAMILY I’M IN; chapter 12

Title: The Family I’m In
Author: Sharon G. Flake
Date: Scholastic; 2025
Main character: John-John (JJ) McIntyre
Realistic African American fiction; YA

Sharon Flake began this series 20 years ago but, don’t think for a minute that this story is stuck in the aughts.

Flake is acquainted with her family of characters well enough to write about the boys this time around; to set these Gen Alpha guys front and center as they struggle to develop into men. John John is the perfectly imperfect teen who is struggling to shape his own identity but can’t avoid the antiquated reach of his dad. He’s okay not fitting in at school, he’s quite used to that and besides, he has friends. John John’s dad really wants his son to date, and that it be a girl is plainly stated. He just wishes that one of these girls would recognize what a treasure he is and that Caleb would quite thinking about money so much.

Caleb’s family is struggling to survive. His father is recovering from a stroke and has becomes unable to manage his once successful business. There’s no one else who can run it for him. Caleb steps up to support the family by creating his own business while also considering dropping out of high school.

Money comes easy to John John because his father’s successful business gutting house brings him much financial and social capital.

This first-person narrative remains John John’s view of the world. The author’s adult voice doesn’t sneak through so that everything quickly makes sense to this young man who’s working to figure out his world. This story is about the journey, not the destination.

The young women in this story still carry the load to set boundaries and John John keeps testing them (the boundaries and the young women). As is too often expected, they are the ones who teach John John how men and women should provide space for one another. And it’s here where Flake delivers a 21^st century message to this family, one with less toxicity and more of the love that we’d expect to find in a family.

Kids just being kids who are growing up, goofing off, sometimes hurting, and always finding their own path sounds like just what we need on bookshelves for today’s readers.

Be well and do good.

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