Nina’s mom is white. Her dad is black. Her brother looks like her dad, and except for slightly darker skin, Nina looks like her mom. What does that make her? Black? White? Something Other?
Being a high school freshman is hard enough, but for Nina, she’s feeling caught between the “black kids” and the “white kids,” who had been her best friends in junior high. Her dad and mom have recently separated, and her dad is getting more involved in his cultural identity. He’s been researching his great-great-grandmother Sarah, who escaped out of slavery, and has written a novel about her.
The novel Black, White, Other by Joan Steinau Lester alternates between telling Nina’s story and Nina reading and reflecting on Sarah’s story. At first, I was much more drawn to the contemporary teenage girl trying to figure out where she fit in, but as the story progressed I was equally riveted by both her story and Sarah’s, who was about the same age and suffering in her identity as well — being punished for learning to read, being separated from her family, and finally striking out for freedom on her own.
In the end, Nina is guided by Sarah’s wisdom and trouble from years ago. She fought to be herself, regardless of what her owner and society said she could be. Nina decides that she doesn’t have to label herself either.
CONTENT NOTE: Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong is published by Zondervan, a Christian publisher, but it isn’t a religious novel at all. Though Nina does wander into a church and have a conversation with a priest at one point in the novel, I would not say that faith is a prominent (or even secondary) theme in the novel.
However, don’t make the same mistake I’ve made in assuming that Young Adult fiction from a Christian publishing house is devoid of any mature content. The whole issue of slavery and paternity of slaves is mentioned, and there is violence as slaves are beaten (one scene is fairly graphic, but completely necessary to the plotline). There are also contemporary teenage issues that come up. I think the main difference between a Christian YA novel is that whereas people may “curse,” it’s not spelled out. There may be suggestive scenes, but nothing is explicit. Teens will be comfortable with this, but younger YA readers may not.
Jennifer Donovan loves reading YA coming-of-age identity fiction, perhaps because she feels like she’s still coming-of-age herself. She blogs at Snapshot.
This looks good. I’m going to add it to my to-read list. Thanks for making me aware of it!
It really is pretty unique, and I haven’t heard that much about it either.
This is certainly a concept that many young people today deal with as our society’s concept of identity is always changing. Sounds really interesting!
Yeah, it is interesting. I’ve felt like Amanda’s generation (or maybe it’s just Amanda??) deals with race a little differently, so I thought that it was interesting with this character that she felt a change when she was going into high school.
I got a chance to read this one and I thought it was very insightful (and I always love books that make connections between history and the present).