The first-person narrative by Donte is pitch-perfect and incredibly powerful, while the brothers’ family life is also beautifully portrayed. He’s hoping that Mr Jones will coach him, but the man has his own demons and regrets. Donte seeks out Mr Jones, a humble janitor, who just happens to be one of the first African American Olympian fencers. Donte resolves to get his own back on Alan, and he sees the best way to do that is to beat Alan at his own game. His nemesis is a racist bully named Alan, popular with classmates and the top fencer in the school. When Donte is arrested – for nothing – his nightmares multiply. He can’t escape the feeling that, unlike his light-skinned brother Trey, he is being picked on for his colour. He’s singled out by teachers, and subjected to racist bullying by his classmates. He keeps getting blamed for things he hasn’t done.

Donte is one of a few black boys at his prestigious school.

One of them presents as light-skinned, the other dark. (Mar.(Orion/Hachette) This excellent new novel by Jewell Parker Rhodes tells an emotive and gripping tale about two brothers who experience life differently. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich. This novel offers a solid story, with relatable, three-dimensional characters considering identity, that will teach readers about colorism’s effects. Donte finds an African-American former Olympian to coach him, and trains to defeat Alan and earn his respect, all while he deals with his own legal troubles and the civil rights case his mother files. When Alan, who constantly targets Donte, throws a pencil and Donte is blamed for it-then arrested when he expresses frustration-Donte’s ready to fight back, on Alan’s home turf: the fencing mat. Older brother Trey, the lighter-skinned sibling of the boys’ black (“Mom thinks Nigerian and Congolese”) mother and white (Scotch-Irish and Norwegian) father, is considered the “white brother.” Donte, the “black brother,” feels like he’s “swimming in whiteness” at Middlefield Prep School, where he is regularly bullied because of his skin tone. In this novel, Rhodes brings middle graders a story of two biracial brothers, Donte and Trey, navigating racism, colorism, and bullying.

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