We would generally recognize this as a strength, but there’s also a trade-off. It allows the reader to impose an ethnicity or racial identity on the character. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a similar technique employed by Virginia Euwer Wolf in the MAKE LEMONADE trilogy. She could be African American, but she could be Indian or Asian, too. Julia’s skin color is described, but she’s never labeled racially or ethnically. While WHEN YOU REACH ME does follow that pattern, that doesn’t make it a less deserving award-winner (besides the Newbery committee will not be comparing it to any of the books that I have mentioned here), but it does damper my enthusiasm slightly (and only slightly) on a personal level. To me, however, they all followed the same formula when dealing with race and racism, and thus new books in the same vein begin to feel somewhat cliche d, however original they may otherwise be. Far from it, they all deservedly won awards or critical priase. Indeed, I’m not saying that the stories mentioned in the previous paragraphs are bad.
That is an observation rather than a criticism. For me, there is a gentler, muted quality to the racism in those earlier stories (as there should be). Moreover, I’m not sure that the tropes of these friendship stories allow the same kind of visceral reaction you get when authors inhabit the black viewpoint in books about racism (CHAINS, THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, MONSTER, DAY OF TEARS, A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL). Hence, I ask the question: Do the black characters function as a plot device that allows the white character to view the world differently? Or are they really fully developed characters in their own right? Now how many of these friendship stories can you think about from the viewpoint of the black character? Not many. Going is one that came out during my Newbery year BONE BY BONE BY BONE by Tony Johnston came out during my Printz year. LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY (Newbery Honor, Printz Honor) and A NORTHERN LIGHT (Printz Honor, Carnegie Medal) are good examples. There is a large body of literature for children written by authors about those moments when white children realize that racism exists in the world, typically these books feature a main character who experiences racism vicariously through the mistreatment of a friend or acquaintance.
One of the rites of passage for growing up white in America are those moments when you begin to realize that there is social injustice in the world, that various people are treated poorly for all the wrong reasons.
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