Off-Color

Children's Literature - Ginny Sautner

Raised on the streets of Brooklyn by her single mother, Cameron Storm is an independent and feisty teen who enjoys singing into her hairbrush, texting her friends, and occasionally playing hooky at Coney Island. Her world is flipped upside down when she discovers that her mother has lost her job and they will be moving to the projects. Cameron thinks this is the most chaotic thing to happen in her young life, but she is wrong. When she discovers a secret that her mother has spent her entire life hiding, the revelation sends Cameron's view of herself tumbling to the ground. In her new surroundings, Cameron learns things about her mother, her family, her culture, and herself that she never thought possible. Ultimately, this is a story of ethnic identity and one teen's struggle to come to terms with her place in the world. After making new friends and discovering new insights, she learns to accept both sides of her heritage. This would be an excellent read for any teen girl struggling to find herself and to come to terms with questions of ethnic identity. Reviewer: Ginny Sautner

Kevin Kienholz

Safe and comfortable in her middle-class neighborhood, feisty 15-year-old Cameron faces typical challenges—dealing with her single mother, avoiding schoolwork, and finding time to text message friends. Her life takes an unexpected turn when her mother loses her job and they are forced to move to a public housing project. McDonald's novel takes a turn when Cameron uncovers a photo of her father and discovers she is bi-racial. Cameron works through the process, then, of straddling two worlds and figuring out how her new sense of ethnicity might allow her to fit into both her old life and her new neighborhood. The issue of race permeates this book, infusing every element of Cameron's family life, friendships, and even school assignments. The novel's title not only alludes to the focus on the complicated issue of race, but it also occasionally serves as an apt description of the book's frank dialogue. McDonald's novel sheds light on one girl's journey toward understanding her own racial identity while prompting readers to consider the meaning of ethnicity. Reviewer: Kevin Kienholz

School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up- Cameron Storm, 15, lives in a white working-class neighborhood until her single mother, a manicurist, loses her job at a Brighton Beach nail salon, which forces a move to an all-minority project on the other side of Brooklyn. Then Cameron finds out that her absentee father is African American. The dialogue between Cameron and her girlfriends seems totally unrealistic, and her conversations with her mother are often just as wooden and cloying. The African Americans in Cameron's new building are folksy caricatures: the wizened sassy widow, the gaggle of tough but happy project girlz. Her African-American "multicultures" teacher and biracial guidance counselor ferry her through her struggles as if on cue. More than half of this slow, slim novel takes place before Cameron and her mother move to the projects, and the time spent in the build-up is wasted constructing characters that never achieve depth. The action picks up only marginally after Cameron's discovery, as the narrative centers on pat and pretty pedestrian discussions of racial identity. The Brooklyn setting is well drawn, especially the contrasts between white and black neighborhoods. McDonald's promising and provocative subject is lost in perfunctory social examination.-Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library

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Kirkus Reviews

Issue-driven but spirited, this posthumously published work tackles the meaning of race. Fifteen-year-old white Cameron loves her neighborhood of Midwood, Brooklyn. She's got her three best girlfriends, a school she's perfectly comfortable playing hooky from, and Coney Island. When the nail salon where her mother works closes down, their rent becomes prohibitive and they move across Brooklyn to the projects. Cameron fears culture shock in her new black neighborhood. Even more startling, she sees her father in a photo for the first time-and he's black. This possibility never occurred to her; she's got blue eyes and Norwegian ancestors, so how could she be black? What does it mean to be interracial, especially when it's a surprise? Cameron makes new friends-"Ja'Qualah, Boomshaka, DeWanda, and Illnana"-who are "bolder and brasher" than her old white friends but have fewer prospects for success in life. Dialect is spelled out ("'teef'," "hunnid percent"). Environments and characters are both energetic and stereotypical, though McDonald makes good points about race. Somewhat sloppy-especially in the ever-shifting narrative perspective-but lively. (Fiction. YA)