All Skin folk Ain't Kinfolk
Asha Williams is settling in - which, for her, means she's starting to care about things. She has friends, mainly her bestie, Nee Nee. And she has Dantay, or something like Dantay, who is honestly taking up approximately forty percent of her brain. She has a block she's starting to know, a school she's starting to read, and a family dinner table that is getting louder and warmer.
Then Asante family moves down the street, including the oldest child and only girl-- Abena Asante. Same age as Asha and ends up sharing a homeroom and five other classes with Asha at Lincoln Middle School.
Abena and her family are originally from Ghana, and were told when they arrived in America to stay away from Black Americans. She has followed that instruction without fully understanding it - until a run-in with a white bully named Jason forces her into Asha's orbit in the worst possible way.
What follows is not a simple story of friendship. It's a story of earned distrust, misplaced anger, historical context, and what happens when two young women from the African diaspora are pitted against each other by the same forces that have always benefited from that division. Asha is righteous and sometimes petty. Abena is guarded and sometimes oblivious. Neither one is entirely right. Both of them are worth rooting for.
Not All Skin folk is a novel about solidarity, betrayal, identity, and what it means to extend grace to someone who hurt you - without pretending they didn't.
Themes
Anti-Black bias within communities of color and its historical rootsPan-African identity and diaspora solidarityBullying and its consequencesAnger as information vs. anger as instructionThe complexity of forgiveness and earned trustEarly romantic feelings and healthy relationship foundationsBest for: Ages 10 and up. A powerful classroom and book club read for discussions on race, identity, and community.
Customer Reviews
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