Jade is a "scholarship" student and one of only a few black students at an elite school in Washington. She knows she should feel grateful for the opportunity to get such a good education, but she often feels like she doesn't fit in. However, when she gets together with the kids in her own neighborhood, she feels like an outsider with them as well, since they don't go to school together. When she meets a new girl, Sam, at her school who, although not black, at least has a family with as many challenges as Jade's, she begins to hope that she has at last found a friend at the school. As they hang out together, Jade begins to see that, even though Sam is from a similar neighborhood, life is different for her since she is white. Sam doesn't seem to understand what it feels like to be the object of prejudice. Meanwhile her school councilor enrolls Jade in a "mentorship" program with a previous graduate of Jade's school who is a successful black woman. That doesn't work out as well as Jade had hoped either. Why does everyone see her as someone who needs help instead of someone who could give help?
After I read All the Blues in the Sky by Ms Watson, I decided to read this, her earlier Newbery Honor book. It is well written. Watson tackles difficult questions about identity and race relations with sensitivity, and doesn't give in to any easy answers. It is probably inspirational to people in similar situations to Jade, but in the end I didn't enjoy it. Maybe that is the point. It is supposed to make white people feel uncomfortable. It helped me understand the defensive and combative attitudes I see in some of my minority students better, I guess. Still, I think there are other books about the same topic that I would recommend before this one, like anything by Jason Reynolds. (2017, 272p)
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