Books about Race and Racism Reviews by Ms

Books about Race and Racism
Reviews by Ms. Belben
Updated December 2006

Bennett, Cherie, and Gottsfeld, Jeff.
A Heart Divided. © 2003. (Fiction/YA)

When Kate Pride’s family moves from New York City to Tennessee during her junior year, she’s unhappy about leaving behind her close friends and the opportunity she’s earned to participate in an elite playwriting group. But she’s also unprepared for the culture shock that awaits her in the South: her new school’s mascot is the Rebels and the Confederate flag is flown liberally around the town of Redford and at her school.

When she meets handsome Jack Redford (a descendent of the town’s founder), the two are drawn together by their mutual attraction and love of theater. But Jack’s blueblood mother is convinced that her son will fulfill the family’s legacy by attending the Citadel and joining the military, and she’s determined to stop their romance. Other factors conspire to interfere with Kate and Jack’s relationship—Jack’s ex-girlfriend and her friends do everything they can to make Jack look bad, and Kate’s participation in a petition to change the school’s mascot to something less offensive doesn’t win her any friends, either.

Kate’s determined to write about the racism that she sees at the new school—the mascot, the Confederate flag, the history of mistreatment faced by African-Americans—but she gradually learns, as she lives in Reford longer, that she can’t write about what she doesn’t really know. It’s only when tragedy hits close to home that she’s able to understand the issues of violence and deep-seated hatred and tradition that surround her.

A Heart Divided has a good blend of suspense, romance, and conflict that will keep readers interested, even if some of the events seem a little dramatic and unbelievable.

In this novel told in poems, high school student Evan Hill, who is half Native American, decides to resurrect a battle his older brother attempted to win when he was in high school: changing the school’s mascot, which is a caricature of an Indian.

Supported by his parents and his other family members, as well as his memory of visits to relatives on the reservation, Evan brings up his challenge with the principal and the school board.

Arguing that they have already faced this decision before and decided to maintain the traditional mascot, the board members don’t take him seriously. But his peers find out what he is doing, and few of them support him. The toughest battle may not be to get the mascot changed, but to get people—adults and peers alike—to understand why it is so important that it be altered.

Readers will relate to Evan and his struggle to right a wrong, especially in politically correct times, when so many school mascots have been challenged as racist. The poetry format will make for a quick, easy, and engaging read.

Lily has always felt responsible for her mother's death, but when an explosive argument with her abusive father indicates that she may, in fact, hhave killed, she decides to run away. She takes with her the family's black housekeeper, Rosaleen, who has just had a confrontation with three racists in town after attempting to register to vote, and is being held in the town jail. The two escape to Tiburon, South Carolina, after Lily finds what she considers to be a clue from her dead mother. In Tiburon, they find three African-American sisters living together and raising bees for honey. The women take Lily and Rosaleen in, and Lily soons learns much about beekeepping, friendship, and herself as she grows closer to the sister and is eventually able to confront the truth about herself and her mother and the past.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd is a wonderfully written coming-of-age story that reminded me in many ways of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD as it is also told from a young girl's perspective (she's actually a young teen, a few years older than Scout). Like MOCKINGBIRD, it also touches on themes of racial prejudice, motherlessness, and "untouchables," as well as on the healing power of truth, justice, and freedom, and has a voice that is unique and highly loveable. In many ways, this story also reminded me of HUCKLEBERRY FINN, too--and not just because a teenager is escaping an abusive father with a "fugitive" African-American in tow. Like Huck, Lily has to make some hard choices about racial justice and about herself before she can proceed happily with her life.

A moving and memorable story of the south during the Civil Rights era.

Sixteen-year-old Hayley Ellyson has her share of secrets, and they nag at her throughout the summer that the judge’s son, Fletcher Greel, returns from prep school and falls in love with her. Haunted by secrets she shares with her father’s best friend, Bo, Hayley finds some relief from her burden with Fletcher, and the two of them spend the summer together, often in the company of Hayley’s best friend, Crystal, a black blues singer, and Crystal’s white boyfriend, Riley.

Their idyllic summer is threatened by more than just Hayley’s secrets, however. Increasing racial tension in town, as community thugs grow more and more uncomfortable with the relationship that Riley and Crystal fail to keep secret, threatens to destroy their happiness, and Riley and Crystal must decide whether to protect their lives or their love.

Fletcher, too, sees an ugly side of life in small town Mississippi, as he works as an assistant in his father’s courtroom and learns of the spousal abuse, the violence, and the secret longings that lurk in the hearts of his father’s employees and clients.

As the summer progresses and their love grows between Hayley and Fletcher, so do the complicated secrets that threaten to tear them apart. Hayley struggles to protect what she knows about Bo, but is haunted by her knowledge and knows she must do the right thing, even if she puts herself and her love for Fletcher in jeopardy

Small-town secrets, racial tension, a Southern summer setting and complicated relationships may remind some readers of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Imagine that you, your family members, and your closest friends were the physical property of another person, forced to work for free and provided with only the bare essentials needed for survival.

Imagine that despite these circumstances—the lack of freedom, the difficult labor, the bad living conditions—that you’ve made a home for yourself. You are with the people you love, and that gives you comfort.

Now imagine that your owner has gambled away his money and is desperate for funds. In order to pay his bills, he has to make a drastic choice—and that choice involves you, your family, and friends. You are going to be sold, one by one, to the highest bidders. Even if that means families and friends, parents and children, husbands and wives, will be sent to live on different plantations and even in different states.

Based on the true story of the largest single auction in American history, that in which over 400 slaves belonging to Pierce Butler were auctioned off during a two-day period, Day of Tears is a novel told in the voices of the people who were involved—the slaves and slaveholders. Though fictionalized, the story is based on the historical documents and personal writings, and it brings to life one of the most tragic events of the era and of U.S. history.