Blended by Sharon Draper

Blended by Sharon Draper 

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves. Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole? It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again—until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired. Ages 8-12

Buy it here

#blended #sharondraper #biracial #family #divorce #divided #tension #feelinglost #race #violence #policebrutality #childrensbooks #youngreaders #loveofreading #storiesofacolorfulworld #letsgetkidsreading

Ninth Ward by Jewel Parker Rhodes

Ninth Ward by Jewel Parker Rhodes

In the week before Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, twelve-year-old Lanesha is attending school, running errands in her neighborhood., and even starting to make a new friend in TaShon, a boy who lives nearby. Lanesha lives in the Ninth Ward with Mama Ya-Ya, the woman who’s raised her since she was born, while the ghost of Lanesha’s mother is the silent third resident of their home.

In this vivid work of realistic fiction the ability to sense things beyond the physical world is simply part of the fabric of Mama Ya-Ya’s and Lanesha’s lives. It’s as real as the rhythm of life in their neighborhood, a place where people do what they can for one another. But that rhythm is disrupted as the hurricane approaches and warnings come to evacuate. Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya have no way out of the city, or even to the stadium where many others are taking shelter. They remain at home, eventually joined by TaShon. The ferocious winds and torrential rains are frightening, but the rising waters in the storm’s aftermath are a slow and quiet terror. When the attic in which the three take shelter begins filling with water, Lanesha discovers survival is more than a matter of strength and courage, but of faith as well. In the end, that means holding on, reaching out, and letting go in author Jewell Parker Rhodes’ memorable, exquisitely realized story that offers an affecting look at the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina through one child’s experience. Ages 9-12

Buy it here

#ninthward  #jewellparkerrhodes #neworleans #hurricanekatrina #tragedy #survival #courage #community #love #strength #childrensbooks #loveofreading #youngreaders #storiesofacolorfulworld #letsgetkidsreading