Frazier, Sundee T. The Other Half of My Heart, 294 p. Delacorte, 2010. $16.99.
Minerva and Keira are twins, but Keira is dark-skinned like her African-American mother, while Minnie is red-headed and pale, like her Caucasian father. Mostly the girls have never noticed many problems with this in the suburban Seattle home, but the summer they are eleven, their maternal grandmother insists that the girls come south to North Carolina to compete in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America competition. Now Minnie felts torn apart - by a grandmother who is harder on the darker twin and a culture where she suddenly feel connected to her sister at all.
Ms. Frazier has created a hard look at the road followed by biracial families. It is at times heart-breaking and heart-warming. This would be a wonderful book for an elementary class to read and study.
EL – ESSENTIAL. Cindy, Library-Teacher.
Minerva and Keira are twins, but Keira is dark-skinned like her African-American mother, while Minnie is red-headed and pale, like her Caucasian father. Mostly the girls have never noticed many problems with this in the suburban Seattle home, but the summer they are eleven, their maternal grandmother insists that the girls come south to North Carolina to compete in the Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America competition. Now Minnie felts torn apart - by a grandmother who is harder on the darker twin and a culture where she suddenly feel connected to her sister at all.
Ms. Frazier has created a hard look at the road followed by biracial families. It is at times heart-breaking and heart-warming. This would be a wonderful book for an elementary class to read and study.
EL – ESSENTIAL. Cindy, Library-Teacher.
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1 comment:
Thanks for such a strong recommendation. I hope that teachers will indeed find the book useful in their classrooms. I believe kids want to talk about race and have important things to say! Again, thanks for the great review.
Sundee Frazier
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