The words in this book are so wise and wonderful, I want to carry it around and speak them to anyone who will listen. I used to think i wouldn't like novels in free verse. Boy was I wrong. Like Brown Girl Dreaming, the verse seems to transport you into the mind and soul of the main character. Mimi Yoshiko Oliver's mother is Japanese and her father is black, and her family moves to a predominantly white town in Vermont where she is judged by her identity and confined by her gender.
The time is the 1960s and the move from liberal Berkeley California is a culture shock.
Mimi is never afraid to speak her truth or stand up for what she believes.My favorite part is when the white principal tells her that "she is a credit to her race" and as she leaves their exchange she tell him the same thing. She is "Like raindrops on granite." I say,
because we know that's how I persist---
drip, drip, drip
until the granite cracks."
Funny, tender,strong, this is a book you will want to put in the hands of everyone you know.
Tessa's Picks, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 7th summer 2016, People of color, Novels in verse, Historical fiction, Character driven
The time is the 1960s and the move from liberal Berkeley California is a culture shock.
Mimi is never afraid to speak her truth or stand up for what she believes.My favorite part is when the white principal tells her that "she is a credit to her race" and as she leaves their exchange she tell him the same thing. She is "Like raindrops on granite." I say,
because we know that's how I persist---
drip, drip, drip
until the granite cracks."
Funny, tender,strong, this is a book you will want to put in the hands of everyone you know.
Tessa's Picks, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, 7th summer 2016, People of color, Novels in verse, Historical fiction, Character driven
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