Rebecca, Not Becky by Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene

Rebecca, Not Becky (2023) by co-authors Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene, is a thoughtful and entertaining story about two wealthy stay-at-home moms, one Black, one white, dealing with the complexities of race and privilege in a post-George Floyd world. De’Andrea is more than a little reluctant when she and her family have to move away from their vibrant Black community in Atlanta to majority-white Rolling Hills, Virginia, in order to be closer to her mother-in-law at an upscale memory-care facility. Rebecca (who does not want to be known as Becky anymore) is chair of the diversity committee at the upscale private school her two daughters attend and is thrilled when her youngest daughter and De’Andrea’s daughter become instant best friends at the beginning of the school year. Tensions rise in the community when a committee is formed (led by Rebecca) to remove a Confederate statue and the burgeoning friendship between De’Andrea and Rebecca is tested. This book is a great follow-up for anyone who felt moved to read White Fragility (2018) or How to Be an Antiracist (2020) in the wake of the racial tensions of 2020. The audio version is excellent, and the two narrators really bring De'Andrea and Rebecca to life.