Face Relations:  Eleven Stories About Seeing Beyond Color
Grade 8 Up–Eleven short stories, many by well-known writers for young adults, explore issues of racial identity and race relations in contemporary U.S. high schools. A hugely fat black boy turns out to be a potential surfer dude; a mixed-race boy struggles to be recognized for his Native American heritage. A high school journalist exposes tensions between Haitians and African Americans in her school, and a Chicano boy and his white band teacher make cool jazz together. A Palestinian boy creates a dialogue group in his Texas high school after 9/11; a white girl wants to sit with her former best friend at the black table. The different appearance of a Japanese-American girl reveals her part in a Halloween prank, and a Long Island girl's Mexican-American boyfriend proves to be both hardworking and honorable. A Trinidadian-Indian immigrant finds a boyfriend good enough to pass even her mother's high standards, and a math whiz can't allow herself to have a crush on her teacher until she knows for sure he, too, is black. Finally, learning about "the Hottentot Venus" leads a white Jewish girl to question stereotypes that relate to appearance. Characters struggle with their understanding of their own identity as they react to the expectations of others. Teens will recognize familiar settings and situations. The stories vary in quality and effectiveness and range in tone from cheerful to sad, but all raise questions that could lead to good classroom discussion.–Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DCCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.