From Publishers Weekly
Maizon, 12, wins a scholarship to Blue Hill, an exclusive, girls-only academy in Connecticut. She reluctantly leaves her Brooklyn home for unfamiliar surroundings, apprehensive about being one of only five African American students at the school. She soon meets three older African American enrollees, who boast of their affluent backgrounds and isolate her from the other girls--including Pauli, the offspring of a mixed marriage, whom they detest for "assimilating." Maizon resents such manipulation, and the trio consequently shuns her. Erecting a shield against further hurt, the girl becomes achingly lonely. Maizon senses she's an oddity at the essentially all-white Blue Hill and in her frank and engaging narrative admits to resisting the place, where racial insults are often seen in innocuous remarks--yet in fact only the three African American girls indulge in obviously bigoted comments. This simply told, finely crafted sequel to Last Summer with Maizon neatly avoids predictability while offering a perspective on racism and elitism rarely found in fiction for this age group. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-- In this second in a planned trilogy, 12-year-old Maizon Singh goes off to an exclusive private school in Connecticut, where she has won an academic scholarship. Beautiful surroundings, good and caring teachers, small classes, and a rich extracurricular program can't offset the girl's confusion and growing alienation. She struggles to cope with snobbery and is distressed by both black elitism and white curiosity. Her sharp intelligence, strong self-image, and spirit help her to confront these challenges but she ultimately decides that Blue Hill is not for her. Far from an expression of failure, however, this represents Maizon's wise acceptance of a fact that escaped her elders--that she was not ready to be removed from the security of her home, with loving Grandma, best friend Margaret, and supportive neighbors. Rather than admitting defeat, Maizon is determined to ``find a place where smart black girls from Brooklyn could feel like they belonged.'' While readers might want more information about the peripheral characters than Woodson has provided, by relating the story in the first person, she has kept the focus on Maizon. A companion, rather than a sequel, to Last Summer with Maizon (Doubleday, 1990), which is told from Margaret's point of view, this book provides a provocative glimpse of the pain and beauty of a gifted girl's adolescence. Readers will eagerly await the third title from this articulate new voice.
- Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NYCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
