Stylish in the Stacks: REVIEW--Black Boy, White School

Thursday, November 14, 2013

REVIEW--Black Boy, White School

Happy Thursday! Ok, I know I've gone on and on about Ruta Sepetys the last few days, so I will switch now to a completely new book review. Today's review is on Black Boy, White School by Brian F. Walker. So let's jump right into it!

Standalone novel
Realistic

The Gist:
Anthony "Ant" lives in Cleveland, Ohio...in the ghetto. He witnesses his friend's murder and knows he just has to get out of Cleveland. So he gets a scholarship to attend a prep school in Maine. But learning to change his image to fit in at his new school may cause him to lose his identity at home.

What I Loved:

I loved the idea of the book (which was actually based on the author's own life). Kid from rough area goes to new, safer area and learns how to adapt.
The title--it's really simple but it gets to the heart of all the issues within the book.

What I Didn't Love:

The cover--it's just blah for me. I don't get the half face thing...maybe it's showing him being torn between two places? Just didn't work for me...
There just wasn't enough depth for me. It was too short for what it was trying to achieve. So therefore, the character development was pretty shallow for me--both with Anthony's character and especially the other African American characters.
So NO ONE would call him by his preferred nickname of Ant...everyone at his school called him Tony. This stereotype just got a little far-fetched...NO teacher or student remembered to call him Ant? Really?
The scenes should have incited feelings in me and they just didn't. Maybe it shouldn't have been in third person so I could have felt more connected...

My favorite quote: "Ant didn't like her because she told everybody he couldn't kiss. He could kiss just fine, though. He just hadn't liked kissing her."

Well, as you can probably tell from above, this book just didn't do much for me. I just wasn't invested in it, despite loving the initial premise. Two stars for me.