D Foster showed up a few months before Tupac got shot that first time and left us the summer before he died.

The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friendÕs lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are crazy about Tupac ShakurÕs rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where heÕs coming from, and through knowing D, TupacÕs lyrics become more personal for all of them.

The girls are thirteen when DÕs mom swoops in to reclaim DÑand as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone, too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.

A Discussion Guide to After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson