Slant
Grade 4–7—Petite Lauren, an eighth grader and Korean-American adoptee, is best friends with tall, blond Julie. While Julie is brimming with self-confidence, Lauren is plagued by a multitude of insecurities. Although she adores her father, a literature professor, she resents his refusal to talk about her mother, who died several years earlier. Eventually, she learns that he has been shielding her from the fact that her mother's depression led her to suicide. Williams invests Lauren with a disarming self-awareness as she analyzes and categorizes her own behavior using terms her father has taught her. When she pretends not to be appalled by her insensitive classmates calling her "slant," "chink," and "gook," she labels her behavior a "sin of complicity." Lauren seems comfortable with her ethnicity in many ways, but she has been squirreling money away for an operation to reduce the creases in her eyelids and is elated when her father reluctantly consents to the procedure. Julie emerges as a strong sidekick, cajoling Lauren to stand up for herself and telling stereotype-spewing kids to quit their offensive behavior. Other offensive ethnic putdowns, such as "kike," are used. Despite her many strengths, Julie obsesses about her weight and is embarrassed by her wealthy parents' ostentatiousness. The characters are exceptionally well drawn, and the friendship between Julie and Lauren is not only believable, featuring humor, conflict, and true wit, but also captures both girls' gains in maturity.—Deborah Vose, Highlands Elementary School, Braintree, MACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.