If you could ask Jesus to grant one your of prayers, what would you pray for?
Latoya Williams prayed for whiteness and Jesus answered her prayers.
Latoya Williams was an insecure and socially rejected young black girl living in Birmingham, Alabama. Latoya is ridiculed at school by white kids and the abuse is exacerbated by being bullied by black kids too. Her family does not have a lot of money, the family car is practically a lemon, and they are living in a house that they cannot afford. Latoya is lucky to have her brother Alex because he shows her unconditional love and protects her when she cannot defend for herself. Latoya prays to become white and she wakes up with blond hair, blue eyes, and white skin. Latoya changes her name to Katarina and gains a lot of confidence. Katarina makes friends with the most popular girls in school and even gets attention from Josh, the captain of the football team. Katarina learns that her new "whiteness" comes with a price. She begins to ditch Alex to hang with the popular crowd, she is sexually assaulted at a party by Josh, and she is bullied at school after she is rumored to have an STD. Katarina longs to become Latoya again because she misses her family and she misses Alex terribly. By the end of the story Latoya asks Jesus to be black again and she mends her relationship with Alex.
Pros: I cannot find any pros about this book.
Cons: The language is suited for 15-16 year olds, but when approaching difficult issues such as: sexism, racism, and sexual violence, the text falls short. The first problem is that none of the characters, including Toya, are ever anything more than the color of their skin. They are black or they are white, they "talk black" or they "talk white" and that's basically their personality. Then there's a romance. An unconvincing romance in which the black boy who bullied Toya before is suddenly sweet and understanding. It's all like this. Everything is too easy; nothing has any depth or complexity to it. A book with such a bold premise should challenge racial stereotypes not reinforce them. Pink had a good idea here, but she did not deliver.
Some people thought Pink's book was great. Here are some links:
http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/into-white
Also, Randi Pink did a Ted Talk on some of her life experiences. Might be interesting to hear what motivates her as an author.
I agree with you that the premise sounds interesting, but the author does not seem to explore the arbitrariness of race or the ridiculous value that society puts on it. This kinda sounds like a book that might have been inspired by the Bluest Eye, but maybe never was fleshed out? Anyways, great post!
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