We’ve Got a Job

Title: We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March
Author: Cynthia Levinson
ISBN: 9781561456277
Pages: 176 pages
Publisher/Date: Peachtree Publishers, c2012
Awards: Finalist for The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction (2013)

Though nonviolent, all of these confrontations were illegal. King reasoned that if enough protesters were arrested, they would fill the jails and overwhelm Connor’s ability to enforce segregation laws. […] Only a few hundred adults heard Bevel’s frenzied sermon that night, and just seventeen volunteered to go to jail. But kids got the message, especially when the preacher who followed Bevel proclaimed, “Some of these students say they have got to go to school, but they will get more education in five days in the City Jail than they will get in five months in a segregated school.” (48, 59)

Segregation in the 1960s was a violent time of upheaval. Most of us have heard the most familiar stories of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. But very few people may realize the effect that children and teens had in moving segregation efforts forward. During the entire month of April, 1963, the first in an effort to fill the jails and bring attention to the cause, only 123 people were arrested. But then a rallying cry and concentrated effort was made to enlist teenagers to a cause that would directly affect them. “Between Thursday, May 2, and Monday, May 6, almost 2,500 young people had been arrested.” (114) The treatment of these individuals, some as young as nine-years old, who flooded the streets brought national attention to events in the south. Ultimately, four children died in a church bombing that was the culmination of tensions between the black and white populations.

Cynthia Levinson spent four years tracking down and interviewing these participants and researching how history played out almost 50 years ago. Including a map, a timeline, an index, pictures of those interviewed and an assortment of notes, this book is an amazing glimpse into a time that changed America. Levinson does a thorough job of bringing to life the actions of the teenagers but also those of the adults involved. Readers finish the book with a solid understanding of how divided not only the community was on the issue of segregation, but also how disorganized the leadership was in achieving their goals. The government endorsed and encouraged the police’s prejudices against these protesters and it is hard to come to terms with their behavior based on today’s laws prohibiting such actions. At one point, government officials notified the Ku Klux Klan that they would be given 15 minutes to confront Freedom Riders, and the perpetrators who were caught after those violent fifteen minutes were given a minimal sentence.

Pair this book with The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine, which is set a few years earlier or The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, which are both set a few years later. Especially in this unsteady time when unrest is reigning and emotions are high with so many political issues, including gay rights, immigration, and gun control, teens might take notes about nonviolent actions that they can use to affect change in today’s society.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, check out Anastasia Suen’s blog.

This book in particular was read as I participate in YALSA’s 2013 Hub Reading Challenge which challenges readers to finish 25 books by June 22nd from a list of 83 titles that were recognized and published over the last year.

The Lions of Little Rock

Title: The Lions of Little Rock
Author: Kristin Levine
Narrator: Julia Whelan
ISBN: 9780399256448 (hardcover), 9780307968807 (audiobook)
Pages: 298 pages
Discs/CDs: 7 CDs, 8 hours and 23 minutes
Publisher/Date: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., c2012. (audiobook by Listening Library, an imprint of Random House Audio Publishing Group)
Publication Date: January 5, 2012

“So what did Miss Taylor say to you?” JT asked.
I shook my head.
“She said Liz isn’t coming back to West Side,” reported Nora, peering over the top of her glasses. “I was standing by the door and heard her. She said Liz is real sick. But I don’t think that’s true, because Liz was in school last Friday and she was fine.”
JT thought for a moment. “My cousin got the stomach flu last week. That can come on real sudden.”
“Yes, but that only lasts a few days,” said Nora.
“Liz isn’t coming back because she’s a Negro,” said Sally.
We all turned to look at her. (62)

Before meeting Liz, twelve-year-old Marlee didn’t have a lot of friends because she didn’t talk to anyone except for her family or her old friend Sally. But her family starts talking less and less as tensions are running high in Marlee’s household, with her parents on different sides of the debate regarding integrating the Little Rock schools. Liz reminded her so much of her older sister that she just felt comfortable talking to her, and Liz started encouraging her to speak up more at school. Then Liz vanishes from school, and the rumor mill is swirling that Liz was actually a light-skinned African-American, sneaking into school and passing for a white girl in order to get a better education. With tempers flaring in this city and acts of violence threatening, Marlee realizes she must pick a side and speak up if she’s going to prevent disaster from striking her or Liz.

This book reads like a younger version of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. It brings the issue of integration and segregation to a level that kids understand, and sheds light on a period of time that even Levine recognizes in her author’s note is not talked about. “When I was in elementary school, my own education about the civil rights era was sketchy at best, but even I learned about the Little Rock Nine. [...] On the other hand, I had never heard of schools being closed to prevent integration, even though I later learned it had happened in my very own state of Virginia as well.” (292-293) I’ve mentioned several times that I enjoy “based-on-a-true story” type books, which I think is why I enjoy historical fiction so much when it’s set around little known events. It’s a fun way for me to learn about history and serves as a launching point to discover more, and I think other readers would agree.

Levine stays true to the era with language, which I appreciate when an author doesn’t cheapen the story by not using culturally significant words, like “Negro” and the not so nice term for African-Americans. I realize my not using it might look contradictory to some readers, but I don’t need to use the word to lend historical accuracy to a story, which is how Levine uses it. I absolutely love the front of the hardcover, featuring the black and white birds, both of which play a role in the story. While I know there’s lots of talk out there about white-washing covers and not portraying actual photographs of minorities on covers, I think the cover implies the tone of the story that can be found on its pages. The paperback version does have a photograph looking cover (I haven’t seen it in person, and it’s hard to tell by this graphic), but I think it makes the book look intended for younger audiences, which I don’t think would be right. Marlee is a seventh grader in the story, and things do get somewhat violent towards the end, so I would whole heartedly recommend it for middle schoolers but would probably hesitate to go younger. However, I do know some people who would argue that there was no audience filter on the events as they were happening, so why should we filter what they read since they would have experienced it first hand if they had been there. Obviously it’s your call as to who you recommend this book.

All the characters in the book are multi-faceted and very accurately portrayed. The time they are growing up in and the issues they are facing are not simple, and it’s refreshing to see so many characters realistically grappling with their lives. Marlee’s evolution is slow but steady, and we see enough glimpses of her during the school year to witness her thought-process and how major events influence her decision-making. Liz is bold and intelligent, and it’s no wonder that Marlee is pulled towards this new girl packing so much personality and self-assurance. Although told time and again that it would be dangerous to remain friends, just like typical teens they don’t recognize that danger and refuse to heed warnings until it’s almost too late. I want to also recognize the parents of both girls in this novel who work jobs and are out of the house but are far from absent or removed from the situation. Their thoughts and feelings grow, evolve, and change as the situation changes and the school closings continue to stretch on indefinitely with no answer in sight. They discipline their daughters but also support them, worry over their safety, and try their best to be involved and encourage what’s best in their children’s lives.

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Julie Whelan’s narration, which is spot-on. It probably helps that the book is told from Marlee’s perspective, which limits the rare male voices to a meager half-dozen at most. Readers get swept away by the story and don’t notice the time passing until you have to change discs. I waited a long time to read this, but you shouldn’t. Put this on every recommended book list you can, whether it is a list of historical fiction, African-American fiction, amazing audiobooks or simply friendship or school stories. It’s a heartfelt, memorable, and eye-opening account of friendship in tough circumstances during a period of time that strongly affected the people who lived through it. The story will stay with you for some time after you’re done reading it, making it a strong contender for reading group discussion.

Shadow

Title: Shadow
Author: Michael Morpurgo
ISBN: 9780312606596
Pages: 180 pages
Publisher/Date: Feiwel and Friends Book, an imprint of Macmillian, c2010.
Publication Date: Sept. 4, 2012 (US) (first published Jan. 1, 2010)

I saw then what they had seen, foreign soldiers, several of them, coming slowly toward us. The one in front had a detector–I’d seen them before in Bamiyan–and I knew what they were for. He was sweeping the road ahead of him for bombs. I think it was only then that I put two and two together, and realized what Shadow was doing. She had discovered a bomb. She was pointing to it. She was showing us. and I knew somehow that she was showing the soldiers too.
But they still couldn’t see her. She was hidden from them by a boulder at the side of the road. So I just ran. I never even thought about it. I just ran, toward the soldiers, toward Shadow, toward the bomb.(72-73)

When Aman was just a child living in Afghanistan, his father and grandmother were killed by the Taliban. Forced to flee the country with his mother in the hopes of meeting up with an uncle in England, Aman faced some insurmountable odds. Finally making it across the border with the aid of a unique dog he named Shadow, Aman leads a relatively comfortable life in England. After spending six years in England, Aman and his mother receive the shocking news that their asylum request has been denied and they need to return to Afghanistan. They are locked away, awaiting deportation. That’s when Aman’s friend Matt and Matt’s grandfather make a last-ditch effort to save this family from a separation that could kill them.

Allowing Aman to tell the story in a flashback format prevents the urgency and apprehension from building. We already know that he and his mother make it to England successfully because he is locked there awaiting deportation. By the time readers catch up to present day, there are few pages left to resolve the conflict, and it’s fairly obvious what’s going to happen and you’re really not surprised by the ending. While the ending is fairly serendipitous, it’s also realistic, as you generally hear about “Hail Mary passes” being caught by someone and being taken all the way by a network of people.

The characters are likeable enough, but even Aman comes across as somewhat one-dimensional, as the focus is on the journey and not the people. Readers can sympathize with his situation, but you don’t get emotionally involved like some other stories encourage. Matt and his grandfather are supplemental, even though they are the only ones relating “present” events. I think it would have increased urgency if we had seen Aman’s state first hand, like when he was detained in the deportation “camp”.

However, I can see teachers using this in lesson plans about ongoing wars overseas, immigration, refugees, and comparing detention centers of today to other times we’ve had something similar occur, such as during World War II with Hitler’s concentration camps and the Japanese internment camps here in the United States. With short chapters, many of which have a dangling if not a true cliff-hanger ending, it would make an interesting read-aloud during transition times or for several minutes each day. Being written by Michael Morpurgo helps too, especially with the recent release of the War Horse movie generating interest in his war based realistic fiction. He provides some background information about asylum-seeking families and military dogs in his acknowledgements and postscripts. I’m very interested in getting the two movies he sites, Phil Grabsky’s The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan and In this World, directed by Michael Winterbottom, although I’m not finding either at any library locally at this time.

2 The Point Tuesdays Flying the Dragon

For my new job, all the librarians write a maximum 150 word review of a new book that came into the library during the month. I’ll be adding my contribution to the blog in a new feature I’m calling To the Point Tuesdays. If you want to play along, just post a link in the comments and I’ll add them to the post.

Title: Flying the Dragon
Author: Natalie Dias Lorenzi
ISBN: 9781580894340
Pages: 233 pages
Publisher/Date: Charlesbridge Publishing, c2012.
Publication Date: July 1, 2012

Ever since she had translated something for Hiroshi that morning, Kevin wouldn’t leave her alone. “Ching chang wong wang!” He snickered, obviously pleased with himself.
“That doesn’t even mean anything.” Skye rolled her eyes, hoping no one else had heard him. As luck would have it, she had to peer around his big head to copy the reading homework from the board. But whenever she tried to look, he blocked her way.
She sighed. “Cut it out. I can’t see the board.”
“Why don’t you ask your Chinese boyfriend what it says when he gets back from ESL class?”
“He’s not my boyfriend; he’s my cousin. And he’s not Chinese, duh. He’s Japanese.”
“Whatever.”
Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him. (48)

Sorano (called Skye) was excited about finally securing a spot on this coming summer’s All-Star soccer team. Instead, she’ll attend Japanese classes due to her cousin Hiroshi and his family moving to the United States. Hiroshi’s just as surprised as Skye about the move, angrily missing his own summer goal of continuing the family tradition and competing in the annual kite battles. The conflict grows as Hiroshi closely guards the little time he has with his ailing grandfather and Skye is embarrassed by Hiroshi’s very Japanese manners. When Skye accidently damages the kite that Hiroshi and his grandfather built together and carefully transported from Japan, it looks like their friendship is over before it got off the ground. Peppered with Japanese phrases, words, and cultural tidbits, this debut novel realistically portrays a collision of cultures and emotions and how two very different people can help each other succeed and soar.

I’d say more about how much I loved this book and the cover, but since it’s To the Point Tuesday, you’ll have to satisfy yourself with following the links. Looking for more information? Literary Rambles has an interview with author Natalie Dias Lorenzi and the author has a whole host of links to reviews and interviews on her website.

Dear Blue Sky

Title: Dear Blue Sky
Author: Mary Sullivan
ISBN: 9780399256844
Pages: 248 pages
Publisher/Date: Nancy Paulsen Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, Published by The Penguin Group, c2012.
Publication Date: August 2, 2012

“Everything seems so messed up”–I took a deep breath–”since Sef decided to leave.”
“Yeah, I know.” His eyes filled. He wiped underneath them with the back of his hand. “I miss that kid.”
I’d never seen him cry before. I didn’t want to. His heavy cheeks seemed to sag, and for the first time, I noticed little gray hairs near his temples.
“What are we going to do, Dad?”
“I don’t know. We’ll figure it out.” (156)

Cassie knows that her life is nothing compared to what her older brother Sef must be going through serving as a Marine overseas in Iraq. It’s hard to cope though when Sef was the glue that held her family together. Now her parents are fighting, her younger brother isn’t talking, and her older sister is withdrawing and spending all her time with her no good boyfriend. Add to that a best friend who’s dropped Cassie for something she wasn’t responsible for, and Cassie’s only way to find relief is to literally run until she can start breathing again, something that she enjoyed doing with Sef but now must do alone. When Cassie discovers the blog Blue Sky, written by an Iraqi girl about her age, Cassie realizes that her life is nothing compared to the horrors Blue Sky encounters in a war zone. Cassie’s opinions and feelings are put to the test during this year of emotional upheaval, and she wonders what she can do to help everyone, including herself, recover.

This is a powerful book that forces readers to rediscover themselves and rethink the world. Mary Sullivan does an amazing job of putting readers in Cassie’s position. There’s a lot of family problems and drama for one book, but Cassie holds herself together surprisingly well considering the circumstances. I guess that’s what I liked about her the most is how real she comes across. There are times where she is just thoroughly overwhelmed by everything going on in her life, but she gets the support she needs from family, teachers, and classmates and strives to make her life more normal. She knows her life is a little crazy, but she sticks with her family and defends against accusations from other people. I was especially proud of how she cares for her younger brother, who has Down Syndrome and is having trouble with one of the neighborhood kids. She really takes to heart her self-imposed responsibility of taking care of the family now that her brother is away.

There have been a few books that have come out about the war in Iraq, post-September 11th, and teens dealing with a family member involved in the military in some way. Sullivan though presents it from both perspectives with the help of Blue Sky, the Iraqi blogger that Cassie strikes up an e-mail conversation with. While I understand that with the changing nature of the internet it might have been difficult to include a resource guide, I really wish she had included some of the blogs she referenced in her acknowledgements. She writes that she is forever grateful “to all the Iraqi girl bloggers brave enough to write about how the world changed their lives” and I feel like this would have been the perfect opportunity to include some of the ones she read. After a quick google search, quite a few of the blogs are defunct, and the few that are still active only provide a few rare posts each year. A few that I found include Middle East Journals and Baghdad Burning with depressing descriptions of fleeing the country several years ago, after which is stops. You’re left wondering what happened.

Besides that one quibble, I think Sullivan did an excellent job. She provides a plausible explanation for Blue Sky’s passable English skills (her father teaches English and worked as an interpreter) and she provides a glimpse into a life that is literally on the other side of the world from what we are used to in America. I hope we will never have to live through the type of warfare/conflict that has become so common overseas. Sullivan shows how the public can support the troops serving, even if they are conflicted about the war. This is a thought provoking, discussion worthy book with an eye-catching cover.

Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass

Title: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship
Author: Russell Freedman
ISBN: 9780547385624
Pages: 119 pages
Publisher/Date: Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, c2012.

Douglass and Lincoln had never met, but they had some things in common. They had both risen from poverty and obscurity to international prominence. Both were self-educated. Lincoln, born dirt poor, had less than a year of formal schooling. Douglass, born a slave, wasn’t permitted to go to school. He taught himself to read and write in secret, hiding the few books he was able to get his hands on. And in fact, the two men had read and studied some of the same books.
Even so, in the year 1863 it required plenty of ‘nerve,’ as Douglass put it, for a black man to walk unannounced into the White House and request an audience with the president. [...]
He was determined to wait. (3)

Describing the relationship that Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass had as a friendship might be hard for us to believe, considering they only met each other three times. But since some friendships these days are formed solely through digital communication means like the phone and the Internet, it might not be so hard for people to accept this description as I might think. In this book, Russell Freedman returns to his roots. Having already written a Newbery Medal winning photobiography about Lincoln, I can only imagine the resources he has at his disposal to investigate the relationship between Lincoln and Douglass.

But really the book isn’t just about those three meetings. It covers Lincoln’s and Douglass’s lives before they met up to Lincoln’s assassination. The unique part about this book is it discusses the evolution of Lincoln’s thoughts about slavery. Most students only learn about the Emancipation Proclamation and that Lincoln was against slavery. Freedman’s book shows that Lincoln’s actions and beliefs were never that black and white (pardon the pun). Lincoln maintained during the early part of the war that his only goal was to restore the Union, and didn’t end up issuing the Emancipation Proclamation until over a year into the war. He appears to be a political strategist from the beginning, and he always hesitated before slowly enstating further liberties for African-Americans because of his fear of the public’s response. Douglass had so such fears, and actually fled the country twice to avoid the public backlash against him and his beliefs.

While I can see it being added to numerous African-American History Month reading lists, students will probably have to consult other sources in order to get a complete view of these two influential men and the circumstances that brought them together.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, check out Jennifer Wharton over at Jean Little Library.

Sunday Shout Out #6

I haven’t done a Sunday Shout Out series in quite some time, so I thought I’d revive this series of posts. Sunday Shout Out was created to remind/encourage me to provide links to news stories, blog posts, and other things that I think are interesting and noteworthy. If you’re interested in participating or being featured in my next Sunday Shout Out, just drop me an e-mail. Do you have some news or links to share? Feel free to link to your own Sunday Shout Outs in the comments.

Librarians, have you seen this Pearle Vision commercial? It shows a young woman with glasses with her hair up, presumably in a bun, looking straight at the screen. She starts a monologue about how someone’s library books are overdue, and they owe $97 in fines. “What,” she goes on to say, “You don’t have $97.” At this point she pulls out her hair and flings it around her face “Well, what are we going to do about that?” The screen then zooms out and we see she’s actually shopping for glasses, with two salespeople on either side looking at her reflection in the mirror with her with their jaws dropping.

So I guess my poll for this Sunday Shout Out is: funny, or not?
Edit: I tried several times to get the poll feature to work, but it apparently doesn’t want to, so you’ll just have to leave your opinion in the comments.

Heart and Soul

Title: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans
Author/Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
ISBN: 9780061730740
Pages: 108 pages
Publisher/Date: Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, c2011.
Awards: Won Coretta Scot King Author Award, 2012
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, 2012

Most folks my age and complexion don’t speak much about the past. Sometimes it’s just too hard to talk about–nothing we like to share with you young folk. No parent wants to tell a child that he was once a slave and made to do another man’s bidding. Or that she had to swallow her pride and take what she was given, even though she knew it wasn’t fair. Our story is chock-full of things like this. Things that might make you cringe, or feel angry. But there are also parts that will make you proud, or even laugh a little. You gotta take the good with the bad, I guess. You have to know where you come from so you can move forward.” (7)

Just as the subtitle says, this is the story of America and African Americans. Narrated by a family matriarch, she takes readers back in time to her grandfather’s time, when he was taken on a slave ship to serve on a plantation, and proceeds to tell her family’s story all the way to present day. Covering the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, both World Wars and the Great Depression, she concludes with the Civil Rights marches and an epilogue that discusses the accomplishments that movement brought.

Kadir Nelson’s work is a force to be reckoned with. He has been recognized by the Coretta Scott King Book Award Committee a total of five times, but I think this surpasses everything I’ve seen of his. The book is formatted and designed to mimic a photo album, with the cover artwork framed out with scrollwork. The double page spreads primarily consist of one full-page picture and a page of corresponding text. Generous white space, short chapters, and the conversational tone make the book a very quick read, and readers will feel like their listening to their own grandmother telling the story of her youth.

You’ll really need to go through it a second time to truly appreciate the detailed artwork, ranging from unoccupied landscapes to crowded scenes. Nelson even includes imitations of some iconic portraits like Martin Luther King’s Jr. address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Interspersed throughout the book are a handful of double page illustrations that really bring readers to a halt. The book could be called a pictorial history book or narrative nonfiction, but in any case it’s a stunning portrayal of history.

This post is in honor of Nonfiction Mondays. For the entire round-up of all the bloggers who participated, check out publishers Capstone over at Capstone Connect.

Zen and the Art of Faking It

Title: Zen and the Art of Faking It
Author: Jordan Sonnenblick
Narrator: Mike Chamberlain
ISBN: 9780739371558
Pages: 264 pages
Discs/CDs: 5 CDs/ 5 hours 35 minutes
Publisher/Date: Listening Library, c2008 (print Scholastic, c2007)

San Lee has just moved to a new town (again) and has a chance to reinvent himself instead of being the adopted son of a con-man father who is now in jail and a mother who works long hours. So when the kids at school accidentally gets the impression that he’s some sort of Zen mystic, he decides to go along with it. Especially because his meditation in the snow catches the eye of Woody, a girl with her own history and drive to recreate herself.

I didn’t have the instant connection with Zen and the Art of Faking It that I did with Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie or After Ever After. The main characters of those other novels are introspective and mature and the stories are weighted with emotion. This story is less so, and at times San appeared abrasive to me. With the popularity of Wimpy Kid, I can see his attitude appealing to teen readers. He does work harder than Wimpy Kid in trying to accomplish his goals, however misguided those goals are since he’s encouraging his classmates to think of him as a Buddhist expert. San is extremely dense and essentially clueless, which got on my nerves. For example, something that bothers and troubles San for most of the novel I had figured out the first time they gave the clues, and was therefore yelling at my radio every time they mentioned it for the rest of the book. I did like that Sonnenblick took a chance at portraying Buddhism in a teen fiction book, since we see it presented so infrequently in literature. I thought applying the philosophies to every day events like basketball helped bring understanding and might encourage more exploration in the religion.

My apathy towards the book might have something to do with my listening experience. I had a hard time connecting with narrator Mike Chamberlain, with his efforts coming across as overly exaggerated and I can’t decide why. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t, but he didn’t have enough range to distinguish between all the characters, and I got confused over who was speaking several times.

Overall, this book is a coming of age story, and if older Wimpy Kids are looking for something similar I might hand it off to them. The “Happily Ever After” ending however is nothing like Wimpy Kid, and seems a little disingenuous with all the miscommunications that involve San. Personally, I would stick with Jordan Sonnenblick’s other novels.

The Other Half of My Heart

Title: The Other Half of My Heart
Author: Sundee T. Frazier
ISBN: 9780385734400
Pages: 296 pages
Publisher/Date: Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., c2010.

The location of their birth got them on the evening news all across the country, but what got just as much attention, if not more, was something else.
Something they’d been told all their lives didn’t really mean anything.
Same Mama and Daddy. Born seven minutes apart in the back of their daddy’s plane.
But Keira, with her dark curly hair and cinnamon-brown skin, was black, like their mama, while Minni, with her reddish blond hair and milky pale skin, was white, like their daddy. At least that was what the articles on the Internet said.
One-in-a-million twins. [...]
She asked Mama once, “Am I just white? Or am I black, too?” because when she looked at her pale skin next to her sister’s nad Mama’s rich brown, it sure was hard to see how she could be called black.
“Of course you are,” Mama said, not really answering her question. (6-7)

It’s hard to believe that Minerva (also known as Minni) and Keira King are sisters, much less twin sisters. With a white father and an African-American mother, Minni takes after her father, while Keira takes after her mother. Although they don’t like the stares or questions they receive from strangers, they have come to accept their chessboard family. This peace is shattered when their Southern grandmother enrolls them in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America pageant. While the other contestants are questioning whether Minni is black enough to participate, Minni’s lighter skin is admired by her grandmother, which further ostracize the girls from each other. Minni’s left wondering if this is how Keira feels all the time in their primarily white neighborhood, while Keira maintains that Minni can’t possibly understand what it’s like. Can the girls come to grips with their own unique beauty?

The Other Half of my Heart by Sundee T. Frazier will warm both sides of your heart and make you question what it really means to say “beauty is only skin deep”. The emotions are palpable as Minni and Keira try to understand the other one’s position. That’s the amazing thing about this book, is that neither girl wants sympathy, they just want people to recognize and acknowledge that they might be feeling these emotions. Their inability to express themselves and accept the other’s empathy leads to misunderstandings that get patched up at the end, but I wonder if there were any lasting effects due to their realization of their differences. It’s surprising of their naivety regarding their differences before the pageant.

I’m a little concerned however, because the emphasis is so squarely placed on the girls identifying with their African-American culture/heritage/tradition. What about their white half? I can only imagine how the girls’ father must feel about the twins exclusively pursuing their blackness with such intent. Why must they choose black, instead of assuming a bi-racial identity? Maybe it’s just because I’m white, but I don’t say my family is only from one country. If someone asks what I am, I mention the countries that both sides of the family originated from. I thought bi-racial people would do the same. That’s really my one qualm about the book.