Shayla is twelve years old and a writer…even if most of the adults in her life routinely thwart her efforts to pursue the writing life. She writes about her mother and her Grandma Augustine. She writes about her big sister Tia and her sometimes father Mr. Anderson Fox. She chooses words in bursts of spare poetics: Mama is all broken inside, and sorrow is hanging from our ceiling like icicles from a Christmas Tree, Shayla keeps her world making sense by writing everything down in her blue notebook.

Even as poverty and race render its residents invisible, Shayla’s neighborhood screams for attention. Days and nights in this Houston town are accented by Sundays at church, functions at the community center and the countless on the side businesses folks maintain to help make ends meet. Amidst all this, Shayla befriends Kambia, the new girl next door whose ragged clothing along with her mother’s flat on her back profession keep the neighborhood gossiping, but blind to telltale signs of abuse. Considered too much trouble to comprehend by most, Kambia dreams up tales of memory beetles, story bees and Wallpaper Wolves to explain all the nonsensical things in her world. To Shayla, Kambia’s storytelling is just an annoying "baby game". To the reader it becomes apparent that Kambia’s stories reveal the darker truths of the waking nightmare that is her life. Shayla tries to be the best friend she knows how by keeping Kambia’s stories secrets–without fully understanding the harm in keeping Kambia’s secrets.

When I was an awkward twelve, too old to play with dolls and too young for womanhood, my refuge then and still is books. Therefore, it is always a great pleasure to find stories about young readers and would be writers. When Kambia Elaine Flew in From Neptune is beautifully written. Williams creates a sensitive and likeable protagonist in Shayla, reminiscent of Francie, the twelve-year-old heroine of Louise Meriwether’s classic, Daddy Was a Number Runner. The imaginative use of story in the portrayal of Kambia Elaine’s character is dramatic and effective. However, I found myself wanting more detail and time with Kambia’s character and circumstance.

Although, Kambia Elaine is categorically a Young Adult novel, Williams will reach a cross section of adult and younger readers with this intriguing tale. A strong new talent, I look forward to more work from Lori Aurelia Williams.