Even Dasani’s name speaks of a certain reach. The bottled water had come to Brooklyn’s bodegas just before she was born, catching the fancy of her mother, who could not afford such indulgences. Who paid for water in a bottle?
The protagonist of this story is named Dasani Coates. But her story is really only part of a much larger whole. In a way, one could even argue that the real protagonist of the story is Brooklyn since the setting is integral to telling Dasani’s tale. In addition to Dasani’s story taking place in the 21st century, the narrative also goes back in time—to the 19th century, in fact—to present a portrait what Brooklyn was like at the midpoint of the 20th century. And that was an era in which it was absolutely unthinkable that a product like Dasani—or any brand of bottled water for that matter—would ever exist in anyone’s lifetime. That divergence of reality is also at the heart of the story.
Dasani’s intelligence is “uncanny” and her “thought content far surpasses peers her age,” writes a counselor at the school. Principal Holmes can also see it, calling Dasani a “precocious little button,” the type of girl who could become anything—even a Supreme Court justice, if she harnesses her gifts in time.
What makes Dasani’s story unfairly unique enough to warrant ten years of research and a book is that Dasani is regarded as something special in the depressing world of poverty, crime, hunger, drugs, and system racism she calls home. Her mother and stepfather had met in a homeless shelter and things don’t really improve all that terribly much even as the blended family begins to expand. Dasani is singled because she is both academically gifted and a talented athlete. And in the world of secondary education, opportunities, of course, those are the only two avenues offering any chance of breaking the cycle and getting out. But merely being smart and athletic is hardly a guarantee so the question lingering over the narrative is whether opportunity knocking will translate into opportunity being welcomed through the door.
Miss Holmes returned to New York and did some research. She learned that Hershey was a boarding school for poor children. Starting at age four, they can attend for free and all of their needs are met—medical care, meals, clothing, even piano lessons. If they perform well enough, they can graduate with an $80,000 college scholarship.
Miss Holmes is the sixty-year-old Principal of Dasani’s school, the one who refers to her as a button. In the early 80’s, she had often taken students to the Hershey theme park in Pennsylvania. On one of those occasions, she happened to notice a building in the distance that captured her imagination and she proceeded to learn more about it. It turns out to be one of the best-kept secrets in education and only just exactly the sort of miracle that Dasani needs to drag that opportunity that’s knowing right through the doorway and shove it down into a comfy sofa. But, as one can imagine, there are far more students wanting to get into the school than openings for them. Dasani has talent and smarts and a work ethic, but will she prove to have the one thing that trumps all those when it comes to living the dream: luck?
