"O felt her presence behind him like a fire at his back.”
Arriving at his fourth school in six years, diplomat’s son Osei Kokote—“O” for short—knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day, so he is lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one boy, used to holding sway in the world of the schoolyard, can’t stand to witness the budding relationship. When Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl, the school and its key players—teachers and pupils alike—will never be the same again.
The tragedy of Othello is vividly transposed to a 1970s suburban Washington school, where kids fall in and out of love with each other before lunchtime, and practice a casual racism picked up from their parents and teachers. The world of preadolescents is as passionate and intense, if not more so, as that of adults. Drawing us into the lives and emotions of four eleven-year-olds—Osei, Dee, Ian and his reluctant girlfriend Mimi—Tracy Chevalier’s powerful drama of friends torn apart by love and jealousy, bullying and betrayal, is as moving as it is enthralling. It is an unforgettable novel.
Amazing
"This was actually an amazing read. Very interesting how Chevalier can write such young characters so thoroughly and accurately while addressing some very heavy topics. On the surface things seem like child’s play but the way she writes characters’ thoughts and feelings makes obvious how deeply affected children can be over the same things we are as adults. Highly recommend this book, I couldn’t put it down and had it finished within 24 hours."
