Salmon Croquettes by Glodean Champion

Salmon Croquettes by Glodean Champion

In 1965, The Circle in Watts, Los Angeles, was filled with its own particular joys and troubles. This vibrant neighborhood comes alive in Salmon Croquettes, a heartwarming, humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking, historical fiction that brilliantly exposes the strength, resilience, and interconnectedness of the Black community.

Zayla Lucille McKinney grapples with the confusion of feeling like a boy trapped in a girl's body. Is she what the other girls call her, a bulldagger? And what does that even mean? In the midst of her transformation from 12-year-old tomboy to young woman, the community she loves explodes in a racial uprising. The Watts Riots teach Zayla the fragility of life and the importance of friendship. As the embers die down and the smoke clears, Zayla also learns something else, a family secret. Salmon Croquettes is a sensitive exploration of Zayla's transition from childhood incomprehension - why do adults expect children to magically understand what is not acceptable? - to an acceptance of who she is and the truth of who her parents really are.