From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-Seventh-grader Maleeka Madison is miserable when a new teacher comes to her depressed inner-city school. Miss Saunders evidently is rich, self-assured in spite of the white birthmark across her black skin, and prone to getting into kids' faces about both their behavior and their academic potential. Black and bright, Maleeka is so swamped by her immediate problems that Miss Saunders's attentions nearly capsize her stability. The girl's mother has just emerged from a two-year period of intense mourning for her dead husband, during which time her daughter has provided her with physical and moral support with no adult assistance. At school, Maleeka endures mean-spirited teasing about the darkness of her skin and her unstylish clothing. She seeks solace in writing an extended creative piece, at Miss Saunders's instigation, and also in the company of a powerful clique of nasty girls. Told in Maleeka's voice, this first novel bristles with attitude that is both genuine and alarming. The young teen understands too well that her brains aren't as valuable as the social standing that she doesn't have. In the end, she is able to respond positively to Miss Saunders; she also becomes socially anointed through the affections of the most popular boy in the school. This message rings true in spite of the fact that Maleeka's salvation isn't exactly politically correct. Young teens will appreciate Flake's authenticity and perhaps realize how to learn from Maleeka's struggle for security and self-assurance.Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Locker doors slam, backpacks hit the floor, and flirtations and insults are traded in echoing public middle school hallways. While these background sounds are not actually present in this superb recording, it's easy to imagine the inner city setting through the characterizations created by narrator Sisi Aisha Johnson. The story focuses on the relationship between 12-year-old Maleeka Madison, whose dark skin and secondhand clothes draw much teasing and torment, and her English teacher, Miss Saunders, whose disfigurement brings its own negative attention from students. Johnson goes beyond delivering dialogue. She gets beneath the skin of Flake's complicated characters. M.M.O. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Card catalog description
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

ANNOTATION

Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Miss Saunders, who's skin is blotched with a rare skin condition, serves as a mirror to Maleeka Madison's struggle against the burden of low self-esteem that many black girls face when they're darker skinned. Miss Saunder's is tough and through this, Maleeka learns to stand up to tough-talking Charlese.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Rebecca Joseph

In this remarkable first novel, Flake confronts issues of race and self esteem. Her protagonist Maleeka Madison is tormented by other students because of her dark skin. When Maleeka meets her new teacher Miss Saunders, she thinks she has finally someone who is worse off than her, because Miss Saunders's skin is blotched from a rare skin condition. As she watches Miss Saunders refuse to accept the taunts of children, Maleeka begins to explore her response mechanisms to the cruelty of her peers. In rethinking how she defends herself, Maleeka learns that she too often judges people by their appearances. This provocative novel explores the ways in which people's own insecurities can affect how they are treated along with how they behave.

Alan Review

Maleeka Madison has problems fitting in with others at her school. Her hair is too nappy, her skin is too dark, her grades are too good, her clothes are too weird, and her teachers are too fond of her. She desperately tries to make friends and to be accepted by her peers. Her situation drastically changes when she meets Miss Saunders, and the changes are not always for the better. The Skin I'm In is a compelling novel of a young girl's struggle with self-acceptance and acceptance by her peer group. Through her struggles and with her teacher's help, she learns "to look into the mirror and like what [she sees], even when it doesn't look like anybody else's idea of beauty." Readers will find strong characters and an engaging plot in this book. Genre: Coming of Age/Realistic Fiction. 1998, Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, Ages 9 to 12, $14.95. Reviewer: Terrell Young

School Library Journal

Gr 6-8-Seventh-grader Maleeka Madison is miserable when a new teacher comes to her depressed inner-city school. Miss Saunders evidently is rich, self-assured in spite of the white birthmark across her black skin, and prone to getting into kids' faces about both their behavior and their academic potential. Black and bright, Maleeka is so swamped by her immediate problems that Miss Saunders's attentions nearly capsize her stability. The girl's mother has just emerged from a two-year period of intense mourning for her dead husband, during which time her daughter has provided her with physical and moral support with no adult assistance. At school, Maleeka endures mean-spirited teasing about the darkness of her skin and her unstylish clothing. She seeks solace in writing an extended creative piece, at Miss Saunders's instigation, and also in the company of a powerful clique of nasty girls. Told in Maleeka's voice, this first novel bristles with attitude that is both genuine and alarming. The young teen understands too well that her brains aren't as valuable as the social standing that she doesn't have. In the end, she is able to respond positively to Miss Saunders; she also becomes socially anointed through the affections of the most popular boy in the school. This message rings true in spite of the fact that Maleeka's salvation isn't exactly politically correct. Young teens will appreciate Flake's authenticity and perhaps realize how to learn from Maleeka's struggle for security and self-assurance.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Kirkus Reviews

A timid seventh grader finds the mettle to shake some bad companions in this patchy esteem-builder from Flake. Tired of being harassed in the halls for her dark skin and homemade clothes, Maleeka latches on to tough, mouthy classmate Charlese for protection, although the cost is high: doing Charlese's homework and enduring her open contempt. Enter Miss Saunders, a large, expensively dressed advertising executive on sabbatical for a year to teach in an inner-city school; Maleeka puts up a hostile front, but slowly, angrily, responds to the woman's "interference," creating a journal that is part diary, part a fictional slave's narrative that later wins a writing contest. As Maleeka inches toward independence, Charlese counterattacks, bullying her into incriminating acts that climaxes with a fire in Miss Saunders's classroom. The violence is contrived, the characters sketchy and predictable, but the relationship that develops between Maleeka and Miss Saunders isn't all one-way. A serviceable debut featuring a main character who grows in clearly composed stages. (Fiction. 11-13) .