Packer’s short story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, was published to a chorus of praise from reviewers. The reviewer for Publishers Weekly comments that “the clear-voiced humanity of Packer’s characters, mostly black teenage girls, resonates unforgettably through the eight stories of this accomplished debut collection.” The reviewer concludes, in a comment that might be applied also to “Brownies”: “These stories never end neatly or easily. Packer knows how to keep the tone provocative and tense at the close of each tale, doing justice to the complexity and dignity of the characters and their difficult choices.”

Jean Thompson in the New York Times Book Review praises Packer’s skill in characterization; she also brings attention to the youthfulness of the characters and the fact that in some cases they lack self-knowledge. “The very young characters in...