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Summary
Summary
Ant has never been outside of East Cleveland until he gets a scholarship to a boarding school in New England. When his best friend, Mookie, is shot and killed in a drive-by, Ant realizes it's either get out or end up dead. His favorite author, Stephen King, lives in Maine -- maybe they'll run into each other and Ant can show Mr. King one of his own stories.
Instead, Ant finds that life at Belton Academy is far from perfect: Stephen King is nowhere to be found. Ant's roommate is a lazy stoner. The freshmen get hazed, and people are shocked when Ant sticks up for himself. Everyone calls him "Tony" and assumes he's great at playing basketball. The girl Ant's crushing on doesn't think he's black enough. He doesn't fit. Yet Ant doesn't feel he belongs in East Cleveland anymore, either. Is there a way for him to remain true to himself
This debut novel offers an uncompromising look at class and race by a riveting storyteller. Some of it hits close to home for the author -- though Black Boy White School is not his own story, Brian F. Walker grew up in East Cleveland, where he ran with gangsters, drug dealers, and thugs until age fourteen, when he was sent to boarding school and a world he had no way of understanding.
Brian is the winner of a fiction-writing grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an up-and-coming new author.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Anthony "Ant" Jones, 14, has never known any life outside of his crime-ridden East Cleveland neighborhood. That is, until the day he learns that he's been accepted to the prestigious Belton Academy in Maine. There he finds himself in the midst of unfamiliar territory-a heavily upper-class, Caucasian population. As he struggles to fit in, he begins to feel as if he's losing his identity. The students call him Tony instead of Ant and expect him to play on the basketball team. At home, the neighborhood violence escalates and his best friend is killed. Ant is at first an angry character, and rightly so. His problem lies in being true to who he thinks he is and who he thinks he should be. To make matters worse, there are some deep-seated prejudices in the Belton community. Cliched moments mingle with raw realism. Where some scenes can feel forced, others feel heartfelt and genuine. The fast pace and style of writing will appeal to a variety of readers, even reluctant ones, making this a debut novel worth noticing.-Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Stark County District Library, Canton, OH (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Walker's powerful debut never shies from violence (often stark), as it follows 14-year-old Anthony, aka "Ant," from his poor East Cleveland neighborhood to preppy Belton Academy in Maine, exploring issues of racial identity and class. Although the standard "overcoming adversity" tropes appear, they pale compared to Walker's forceful narrative voice and fast-paced storytelling. After his friend Mookie is killed, Ant resolves to take advantage of the scholarship offer he's received and go to Belton. Ant soon discovers plenty of bigotry (including the occasional well-meaning assumption that he'll be on the basketball team), but he also learns to balance his identity within the school with his roots in Cleveland. Had Walker left the novel there, it would still be a solid story, but his exploration of the effect of race and class on identity carries the story far. If there are a few moments of rote cliche (a teacher actually tells Ant, "You helped me grow up, too"), the writing and characters easily compensate for the occasional stumble. Ages 14-up. Agent: Jodie Rhodes Literary Agency. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
After witnessing his friend Mookie's brains splatter on the ground like "chewed bubblegum" in his East Cleveland neighborhood, Anthony Jones agrees to accept a scholarship to a private academy in central Maine. Walker uses authentic street language (sometimes graphic) to explore complex issues as Anthony struggles to find his identity in a foreign environment. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Like the protagonist of his hard-hitting debut novel, Walker grew up on the streets of East Cleveland until he was sent to a boarding school in the Northeast. Anthony Ant Jones, an inky black knot of a fourteen-year-old, has no interest in leaving East Cleveland (where drugs and violence reign) to attend predominantly white Belton Academy in Maine. Then Ant witnesses the drive-by shooting death of a friend, and suddenly Maine seems like the safer option. But life is far from perfect in the Belton bubble: the white students expect him to play basketball (he doesn't) and assume he's from Brooklyn (he's not). Over the course of his year at the academy, Ant's intense exploration of his own identity leads to more questions than answers for example, is he Ant, as he's called in Cleveland, or Tony, a nickname given by white students? How can he live in two worlds and yet feel like he belongs in neither? Walker grapples with these questions of belonging and examines the subject of race relations with unflinching honesty. Both the Cleveland and Maine characters are authentically drawn, and, like Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007), this powerful novel is certain to spark thoughtful discussion.--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist