After Tupac & D Foster

by Jacqueline Woodson

Newberry Honor Book

Two girls, Neeka and the narrator (never named), are best friends and live across the street from each other in Queens, NY when, one day a girl named D walks up onto their block and becomes their friend. The story begins around the time Tupac was shot.

All the girls relate to the music of Tupac Shakur, but mostly D. D. She calls herself a roamer and lives with a foster mom, and says she is trying to find her “big purpose” in life.

The girls are best friends and we learn a lot about Neeka (She has younger twin brothers and younger twin sisters, a basketball playing brother who wants to play in the NBA, and a brother who is gay and in prison and a little about the narrator (she’s a reader and is smart). They don’t know much about D but they love her anyway. One night D comes over to announce that she will be leaving Queens and going to live with her mom.

One day, Neeka and the narrator are outside listening to Tupac’s latest album and D walks up with a woman who turns out to be her mom and the girls say a final goodbye.

When they get the news that Tupac was shot again and may not survive this time, the narrator gets a call from D to lament Tupac’s attack and probable death.

The narrator can never reach D again and she says it is hard for her to think of Tupac and not think of D. In the end, she hopes that D found her purpose and is happy wherever she is.

Notable literary qualities:

Written from the un-named narrator’s point of view, the girls’ voices through dialogue are clear and true throughout the novel.  Taking the music and writing of Tupac Shakur and making those the source of admiration of the three main characters helps develop the attitudes of the three main characters.

Woodson, J. (2008). After Tupac & D Foster. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.