Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton

This was an interesting book that really got me thinking about all kinds of things; stereotypes, racism both blatant and subtle, and fighting the assumptions culture makes. It's a gentle tale of a girl, Mimi, who faces and deals with all these things with grace and kindness. I think it's a bit clean and unrealistic in some ways because I suspect the hatred and racism/sexism was deeper and more dangerous back then but I could be wrong. Vermont is a strange, strange land. Anyway, Mimi moves to Vermont and she is half Japanese and half black. In Oakland, the diversity made her heritage accepted, but in Vermont, she stood out. This Vermont town was also fairly entrenched in traditional roles for girls and boys. Mimi, while also figuring out different aspects of growing up, learns to push back against the barriers holding her in. The characters are well developed and interesting which made the book powerful. Again, I think that these barriers she is breaking down are much harder to actually make any headway, but hope can't be a bad thing, can it? Grades 4-8