Patina: Chapters 1–4

by Jason Reynolds
The second book in the Track series focuses on Patty, a runner who struggles to fit in at her new school after she moves in with her aunt and uncle.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–9, Chapters 10–16

Here are links to our lists for the Track series: Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu

Here are links to our lists for other books by Jason Reynolds: When I Was the Greatest, The Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys, Long Way Down
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. hobble
    walk unevenly due to pain, injury, or weakness
    Her little pea-head's hobbling like it could snap right off.
  2. fidgety
    nervous and unable to relax
    And Maddy, the "Waffle" who was probably being all fidgety in Ma's stomach.
  3. extremity
    an external body part that projects from the body
    The sugar broke Ma’s lower extremities, which is how doctors say legs.
  4. sole
    not divided or shared with others
    But after Ma lost her legs, my godparents—my dad's brother, Tony, and his wife, Emily—stepped in and took over as our "sole guardians," which, the first time I heard it, I thought was "soul guardians," which, I guess, is just as good.
  5. glint
    be shiny, as if wet
    Maddy jumps out and runs to the door, her red beads clacking with every step, the foil on the ends glinting like each braid was a Fourth of July sparkler.
  6. gush
    praise enthusiastically
    Once Maddy gets done gushing, I bend down and give Ma a kiss on the cheek.
  7. hoist
    raise
    I open the car door, put the brakes on the chair so it don't roll out from under my mother as she hoists herself up and leans into the car.
  8. petty
    small and of little importance
    Like I said, I'm a sore loser. And petty, too.
  9. salvation
    the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
    A whole lot of talk about grace and faith and mercy and salvation, which, to me, all just equaled shouting, clapping, and singing in a building built to be a sweatbox.
  10. forsake
    leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
    Father, why hath thou forsaken me?
  11. warden
    the chief official in charge of a prison
    But there's one part of the service where Ma always eases up on acting like a warden.
  12. pulpit
    a platform raised to give prominence to the person on it
    And when Pastor starts banging his hand on the pulpit, and throws out one of those everybody-knows-it scriptures like, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," that's the cue for the organ player, Dante, to get ready to play the happy music.
  13. scripture
    any writing that is regarded as sacred by a religious group
    And when Pastor starts banging his hand on the pulpit, and throws out one of those everybody-knows-it scriptures like, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," that's the cue for the organ player, Dante, to get ready to play the happy music.
  14. infest
    invade in great numbers
    You dance like the church is roach infested and it's your job to step on them all.
  15. appropriate
    suitable for a particular person, place, or situation
    But she can't fist- pump and yell, "Go, Maddy! Go, Patty! Go! Go! Go!"in church. Not really appropriate.
  16. dingy
    thickly covered with ingrained dirt or soot
    They just turn and flip their dingy ponytails toward me like I care.
  17. apparently
    unmistakably
    But apparently, according to Uncle Tony, none of these things were as sweet to him as seeing me run.
  18. elite
    selected as the best
    So proving myself on this new track team—the Defenders—was still just...running. Even if it was "elite."
  19. domain
    territory over which rule or control is exercised
    And the north wing, which was elementary, Maddy's domain.
  20. couscous
    a northern African pasta made of crushed semolina
    She's only known life as a "raisin in milk," as my Ma puts it, where lunch is sauteed prawn, which ain't nothing but a fancy way to say cooked shrimp, and this stuff called couscous, which is basically just grits without the glob.
  21. relay
    a race between teams
    So, anyway, then I tossed out my second choice, which was Harriet Tubman, who to me, was also a pretty good suggestion. Running from slavery and then coming back all those times to free everybody else—like a relay through the Underground Railroad— and Uncle Tony said she might be the new face of the twenty-dollar bill.
  22. stoke
    (of a fire) stir up or tend
    "Yo, Patty, you still mad?" Aaron asked, stoking a fire he pretended he didn't know was there.
  23. baton
    a cylinder passed from runner to runner in a relay race
    He pulled something from his back pocket. A metal stick. A baton.
  24. reluctantly
    with a certain degree of unwillingness
    My attitude started to sizzle as I reluctantly took the baton again.
  25. philosophy
    any personal belief about how to live
    And I don't really know if all his philosophies make sense, but we all understand what he be trying to tell us, no matter how left he gotta take us to get us right.
Created on Fri Apr 27 09:37:26 EDT 2018 (updated Wed Oct 31 11:00:33 EDT 2018)

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