The Skin I'm In Reader Response

A. The Skin I'm In
B. Sharon G. Flake
C. n/a
D. Scholastic Inc., 1998
E. novel, realistic fiction
F. 6-8
G. The Skin I'm In begins with the main character Maleeka, a seventh-grade African-American girl, meeting her new teacher Miss Saunders for the first time. Both Miss Saunders and Maleeka have a kind of beauty that most people don't recognize; Miss Saunders has a large white "stain" across her face and Maleeka is blacker than black. As the school year goes on, Maleeka comes to realize that her blackness is nothing to be ashamed of; as she says "black is the skin I'm in." Maleeka is faced with a lot of the problems that most adolescents face: she struggles to fit in and as a result forms a sort of alliance with some of the "mean girls" at the school. The leader, Charlese, treats everyone terribly and gets Maleeka into trouble on more than one occasion. Finally, Charlese decides that she and Maleeka, along with two other girls, will get revenge on Miss Saunders by destroying her classroom. Maleeka is the only one who is punished for the offense until she has enough courage to stand up for herself and tell the truth about who all was involved.
H. I really got into this book. Even though I'm not African-American myself, I could easily put myself in Maleeka's shoes. I was always one of the smart kids as I went through school and that in itself is enough to bring bullying upon oneself. I also dressed differently than a lot of the kids and I wasn't allowed to do what a lot of my peers were doing at certain ages. Maleeka was such an excellent character; I wish I had had this book to read when I was going through middle school. She shows the raw emotions that everyone feels at that stage in their life and she has this great epiphany at the end that shows that there is no need to be ashamed of who you are. Caleb even shows that no matter what you look like, as long as you are a good person, there will always be someone who cares about you.
Maleeka was exceptionally poetic. Her diaries about Akeelma were powerful. It was great how she used her diaries as an outlet for all the emotions she was feeling about Charlese, Caleb, John-John, and her own thoughts about herself. I was very glad to see that she won the competition. I can't imagine another middle schooler having the imagination and the diction to write such beautiful compositions. I felt like her work was better than a lot of adult writers.
Maleeka also showed how to deal with the death of a parent which is so important. I thought it was moving when she went through the box of things that her mother had kept after her father passed away. That poem was a great statement of the love between a father and daughter and of the pride that Maleeka should have in herself. However, I did feel really bad for Maleeka's mother. She lost her love when her husband died and it took her a long time to heal from it. At least she found an outlet (sewing) to bring her out of her grief and to start her on the path to healing.
I. This book is a fantastic book for teaching to love who you are. Every single person, no matter who, has self-doubts from time to time either about the way they dress, how they look, the way they talk, etc. As an activity for this book, I would have students each tape a piece of computer paper to their backs. Every student would be given a marker and would have to write something nice on the back of every other student in the class. Once everyone has written on everyone else, the students will remove the piece of paper and read what was written about them. I did this activity as a freshman Teaching Fellow and it really makes you feel good about yourself and a little less sensitive about those things that you don't really like about yourself.

*Coretta Scott King Award Recipient*
*Multicultural*