Title: Disappointingly clumsy
Review: Oh dear, I really wanted to like this book but found the writing so clunky and haphazard (slipping in and out of the child's POV and vocabulary) that it was hard to finish. The only reason I gave it any stars at all was that Riley's self-acceptance and the explanation he ultimately came up with for his situation were lovely and touching.By then, however, the story was poisoned by her casual racism--which then Byrd compounds by creating some racist characters, who at least are more open and self-aware about it than Byrd herself! There's just no excuse for perpetuating the negative stereotypes about African-Americans; it's as if Byrd really thinks they're all welfare queens, ex-cons and dialect-spouting orderlies.
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