Plain City

Rating:
Summary: A book about the akwardness of growing up and the heart ache
Review: It's a book about a girl going through the akwardness of adolesences. This reminds me of my life. Teens and children alike should read this book to understand that they are not alone in this metamorphisis on life. It gets confusing at first but then you won't want to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Hamilton has written a fascinating book with a major flaw.
Review: While I enjoy Virginia Hamilton's work I was disappointed by the way in which she presented this interracial character. Ultimately, the protagonist, Buhlaire Sims, lacks the vocabulary to discuss race because the people around her do not talk about it. She is aware of their discomfort. Hamilton's writing style does not offer the reader more substantial ways of discussing race. It instead reinforces stereotypes of the poor, lost mulatto who carries the burden of racelessness. Literature directed toward young audiences ought to be used as a tool in creating language to talk about the realities of mixed-race identity, not the myths. Hamilton somewhat shirks out of that responsibility. Feeling out of place in her world, Buhlaire spends a lot of time wandering about Plain City by herself, along the river and through the snow. She skips school whenever she feels like it and spends that time by herself because she is without friends. Buhlaire receives little guidance about how to deal with the complicated issues she faces. As she makes her way through the whiteness of a winter blizzard, the color white literally blinds her. A lot the misgivings and uncertainties that she experiences, she herself attributes to her own racial ambiguity, she is neither white nor black. I would like to see authors address the issue of mixed-race identity for young adults less hap-hazardly than this, as I am sure great authors such as Hamilton are capable of doing.

Rating:
Summary: Hamilton has written a fascinating book with a major flaw.
Review: While I enjoy Virginia Hamilton's work I was disappointed by the way in which she presented this interracial character. Ultimately, the protagonist, Buhlaire Sims, lacks the vocabulary to discuss race because the people around her do not talk about it. She is aware of their discomfort. Hamilton's writing style does not offer the reader more substantial ways of discussing race. It instead reinforces stereotypes of the poor, lost mulatto who carries the burden of racelessness. Literature directed toward young audiences ought to be used as a tool in creating language to talk about the realities of mixed-race identity, not the myths. Hamilton somewhat shirks out of that responsibility. Feeling out of place in her world, Buhlaire spends a lot of time wandering about Plain City by herself, along the river and through the snow. She skips school whenever she feels like it and spends that time by herself because she is without friends. Buhlaire receives little guidance about how to deal with the complicated issues she faces. As she makes her way through the whiteness of a winter blizzard, the color white literally blinds her. A lot the misgivings and uncertainties that she experiences, she herself attributes to her own racial ambiguity, she is neither white nor black. I would like to see authors address the issue of mixed-race identity for young adults less hap-hazardly than this, as I am sure great authors such as Hamilton are capable of doing.