Wright, Bil - When the Black Girl Sings

[oyceter]

Lahni Schuler is adopted, and to make things more complicated, she's the black daughter of two white parents who are in a rocky marriage. She's also going to a school in which she's basically the only black girl. But soon, she's nominated to sing in a school competition, and her mother drags her to church in an attempt to comfort the both of them. At church, Lahni finds herself joining the choir, where she meets Actual Black People (tm) and learns to express herself through song.

I liked that Wright isn't covering "typical" black topics here—gangs, slavery, oppression, identity crises, etc. While Lahni definitely does have some identity crises, she's also busy being worried about her divorcing parents, her singing competition, and the weird guy who seems to be stalking her. Wright manages to make Lahni's race a part of the book without making it the entire book.

That said, the book didn't end up working for me, largely because of the ending. Singing for Lahni just feels too easy; she has to struggle for the emotion, yes, but never for the technique. And there's a dose of Christianity that comes in at the end that felt a bit forced; yes, she's going to church, but if the end is about religion, I want some religious struggle or at least a mention of religious beliefs before getting to that point.

Mostly, it's not a bad book, but it's also not a great one either.

Comments

[oyceter]

*nods* Siiiiigh. That makes me want to shake Wright more and be all, "You are black! Whyy?" although I am not sure if that's fair.