Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Puffin Books (Penguin Group)
Pages
133
Description
Almost-fourteen-year-old Melanin Sun's comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman.
Description
Jacqueline Woodson's remarkable, award-winning story of a boy coming to grips a sudden change in his family.
Melanin Sun's mother has some big news: she's in love with a woman. Now he has many decisions to make: Should he stand by his mother even though it could mean losing his friends? Should he abandon the only family he's ever known? Either way, Melanin Sun is about to learn the true meaning of sacrifice, prejudice, and love.
Melanin Sun's mother has some big news: she's in love with a woman. Now he has many decisions to make: Should he stand by his mother even though it could mean losing his friends? Should he abandon the only family he's ever known? Either way, Melanin Sun is about to learn the true meaning of sacrifice, prejudice, and love.
Collection
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
133 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
014241641X / 9780142416419
Similar in this library
Lexile
690L
User reviews
LibraryThing member rschwed
Grade 7-11. Fourteen-year-old Melanin Sun has a lot to say?not out loud, but in notebooks he keeps. Named for his dark skin, he knows about being on the outside of things. "Difference matters," he writes early on. What follows is not the usual identity crisis, however. His mother, a law student who
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sometimes acts more like a best friend, tells him she's in love with a woman?a white one, at that. His reaction is negative, strong, and hurtful. Nonetheless, at the end, Melanin seems to have sorted out his feelings?slowly, believably?and recognized in his mother and her lover a vulnerability he feels himself for other reasons. He comes around because of who he is, not because it's the "right" thing to do. Woodson has made Melanin an affecting and memorable, even admirable, character. Once thought "slow" in school because of his reticence, he is in fact a well-read, gifted young man with a talent for writing. The author effectively alternates excerpts from his notebooks?the thoughts intended for his own eyes only?with first-person descriptions of the action. Unfortunately, neither the cover nor the title will draw kids in; the book will need introduction and perhaps booktalking.?Claudia Morrow, Berkeley Public Library, CA. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennybeast
Great book for tweens and teens. Especially if they are coming to terms with someone close to them coming out of the closet. Tender.
Awards
Lambda Literary Award (Winner — Children's/Young Adult — 1995)
Vermont Golden Dome Book Award (Nominee)
Coretta Scott King Award (Honor — 1996)
Margaret A. Edwards Award (2006)
Jane Addams Children's Book Award (Honor Book — 1996)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1996)
CCBC Choices (1995)
Call number
J4D.Woo