by Natasha Díaz
Random House Children's
Delacorte Press
Debut YA author Natasha Díaz pulls from her personal experience to inform this powerful coming-of-age novel about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.
Who is Nevaeh Levitz?
Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom's family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time.
Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but one of her cousins can't stand that Nevaeh, who inadvertently passes as white, is too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices they face on a daily basis as African Americans. In the midst of attempting to blend their families, Nevaeh's dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. Even with the push and pull of her two cultures, Nevaeh does what she's always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent.
It's only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom's past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces that she begins to realize she has a voice. And she has choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she find power in herself and decide once and for all who and where she is meant to be?
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We meet Nevaeh, we learn that her parents are split up and this leads to Nevaeh getting reconnect with her mothers' side of the family. I enjoyed the two different worlds, her mother's side, who is African American and her father who is Jewish.Two worlds collide in her and also set her apart, she’s not white enough because of her black relatives. And to her black relatives she’s too white. The book mostly deals with Nevaeh’s struggle with accepting herself and her identity, with knowing and understanding where she belongs when she feels she can’t fully be part of either culture.
The cast of characters and the backgrounds is awesome!!!! Honestly I am a sucker for poetry so my favorite part of the book is Navaeh's poetry that was my jam.Color Me in is an excellent book about racial identity and figuring out who you are in a world that constantly tries to tell you what they perceive you as. The characters are intriguing as hell and the romance was sticky sweet and a friendship between the main character and her best friend was adorable I would highly recommend to Color Me In for anyone. My rating 5/5
