The Skin I’m In (sample blog entry)

I recently read the book “The Skin I’m In” by Sharon Flake. I really liked this book. It was about a 7th grade girl,Maleeka, who has a lot of problems. She gets teased because her skin is darker than most people’s, there is a nosy teacher who is always trying to meddle in her life, she is bullied by some mean kids at school, her father died and her mother is not handling that loss well, and her friends are really just using her to do their homework.

But not everything is terrible for Maleeka. She has a friend, Sweets, and things start to go better with Caleb, a boy she likes. She remembers how very much her father loved her, and that nosy teacher, Ms. Saunders, is really just trying to help. Maleeka is super smart and she wants to do well in school. The book is the story of Maleeka learning how to stand up for herself, use her talents, and be the kind of person she wants to be.

The book was written from Maleeka’s point of view, so it is written the way she would actually talk. I liked that. It made it easy and fun to read. But I also liked that I could relate to some of the stuff Maleeka was going through. It gave me something to think about. If you like realistic stories about kids with problems, you’d like “The Skin I’m In.”