SYNOPSIS

Donte and Trey are biracial brothers whose parents move to the Boston suburbs for mom’s civil-rights attorney job.

Their experiences at a prestigious private school are vastly different because of how they look.

A copy of his Scandinavian dad, Trey is a popular and well-acclimated basketball star.

Donte’s African-American looks cause him to be picked on by teachers and bullied by students and especially Alan, the school’s fencing champ.

Minor events instigated by Alan get Donte accused of vandalism and arrested by the police.

Donte’s mom gets inspired to work on a state discrimination case, while Donte resolves to defeat Alan on his own “turf”.

He convinces a former black Olympic fencer to be his coach.

Donte beats Alan to become champion of a Massachusetts regional fencing competition.

At school, students begin to celebrate diversity and heritage.

PERFECT AGE 9 – 14

We love

• Donte’s path to building self-confidence and will to fight back is written in an accessible and believable language; it’s engrossing and inspiring at the same time.
• Nice to see the protagonist battle the same “demons” as an adult, and how they both grow through the experience.
• Fencing sets a nice stage to think about elitism and privilege in sports, and a good opportunity to learn about efforts to support black athletes in this sport.
• Donte’s cohesive, supportive and caring family is life goals. So what if mom hates the kitchen! 😊

CONVERSATION STARTERS

• When the police lead Donte away outside of school, he gets upset with his brother. What did his brother do and why was that upsetting?
• Name a few times in the book where Donte is not given the benefit of the doubt but quite the opposite. Why might that be?
• What do you think changed Coach’s mind about helping Donte with fencing?
• Throughout the story, Donte talks about being seen. What does it mean and how do you think it feels to be seen or not seen?