Blended

Author- Sharon M. Draper

Rating-⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BOOK DESCRIPTION

                      Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son, Darren, living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend, John-Mark, in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

                     Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about her. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them, than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: It’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?       

WHAT I THOUGHT

This was a great book about a girl who felt like she was torn in two because her parents are divorced. One of the only things that both of her parents can agree on is that Isabelle is great at playing the piano. She has piano at both houses and that is one of the only things that relieves Isabella's stress. But on the way to a piano recital something big happens and Isabella may never be the same again.