A Young Adult Novel
Thirteen-year-old Sharona Jackson doesn’t know what to expect. She recently moved with her family from Memphis, Tennessee to a university town in Arkansas, where her daddy has a job as a professor. It’s summertime in 2013 and she and her older sister, Breanna, haven’t made any friends yet. What will they do for three months? What about when school starts? Will they be accepted? Will they have trouble fitting in this southern town?
Then a new family moves in next door. They seem rather well to do. Will they be accepting? Or will they be bigoted, snooty rich people?
This heartwarming teen novel depicts a year in the life of the Jacksons and their friends, filled with fun, adventures, lessons, and laughter. Not to mention mystery! Pick up a copy today!
See my new book trailer here! The Color(s) of Angels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fJoynZlfKE
Excerpt:
“They’ll be white, what you wanna bet,” Bree said yesterday when we speculated on what the new neighbors would be like. Breanna’s a lot lighter skinned than me, almost enough to pass for white. If she ever did try to pass, I’d let her have it. Well, no, I wouldn’t beat her up exactly. I ain’t the beating-up kind. All I’d have to do is show up. And she don’t need to pass for white, for that matter. White kids like her fine. She’s pretty and smart and athletic, and not hard to get along with if you’re not related to her. Nobody ever believes me and her are sisters. She’s got the red hair, curly like mine, only red—well, not so red. More like light brown. But there’s red in it, kinda like oak leaves when they turn….
“Prolly so,” I said in answer to what she said. “But let’s watch anyway. I wanna see what the new folks like. Wonder if they got a dog. Or one of those exercise thingies. Or a piano.”
What I really mean is, somebody my age, but I don’t say it. I’m thinking now to call Bree out, but I want to see the new folks first. Seems like Bree always gets to see everything first….
A review by J. Carol McCoy-Phelps:
5 out of 5 stars
“Bree says . . . it’s bad enough when you’re white. When you’re mixed race . . . white kids don’t like you and black kids don’t either.”
Sharona Jackson and her family just moved from Memphis to a town in Arkansas. Sharona, almost fourteen, will enter eighth grade in the fall, and she feels insecure about making new friends. Her sister, Bree, will be in high school. RoZita Berry’s The Color(s) of Angels tackles a slew of sensitive social issues, including racism and bullying.
Sharona is dark and Bree is light, and Sharona feels that Bree is ashamed to be her sister. Bree accuses Sharona of talking “ghetto.” Sharona responds, “Our daddy black.” Bree reminds Sharona that they have never lived in a ghetto. Besides that, their daddy is a college professor. Sharona knows that her affected manner of speaking annoys her sister, and she is happy to articulate her pride in doing so.
Sharona and Bree eagerly spy on the new neighbors moving in next door one summer day, and they optimistically count the number of children filing out of the white Lexus. Darrell, Angel, Casey, and their parents look like a happy family. They will become close friends with the Jacksons.
As summer progresses the girls join a baseball team, Bree secretly crushes on Darrell, and Sharona finds a new best friend in Angel. They don’t know that they will soon face racists in their neighborhood and in their school. Angel, who is albino, will be bullied and threatened. A teenage girl will be murdered. How will they deal with bullies? Was Darrell really a murderer after all? How did they win their grandmother’s love? Read this sensitive, sometimes funny, and timely novel to find the answers.
Sharona is the narrator, and she is real and relatable. It feels like she is talking to you in her room, telling you her secrets and sharing a soft drink. I like the plot arcs that show character development. Through Sharona’s eyes we see her grandmother’s disdain for the mixed marriage dissolve and soften into loving acceptance of the entire family. We see Sharona growing into a young lady through the stages of puberty and her feelings about the boy who likes her. I cannot praise this book highly enough. Sharona’s personality grasped my heart and my attention on the first page, and I didn’t want the story to end. Berry masterfully drew me into this story as if I were there, seeing, hearing, and feeling all the emotions and interactions that Sharona experienced.
There is nothing about this book to dislike. I rate The Color(s) of Angels 5 out of 5 stars because the book is so beautifully written and exceptionally well-edited. The book deals with racist encounters and sparse profanity in dialogue between characters. For these reasons, I recommend the book for readers who are in middle school and older.
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The Color(s) of Angels
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Yellow Rose Publications 