The Other Half of My Heart
Delacorte Press / Random House, Inc., 2010
Kirkus Reviews “Best Children’s Books 2010”
Cooperative Children's Book Center's Choices 2011 listing of best books from 2010
Best Children's Books of the Year 2011 list by the Bank Street College of Education in New York
Named a 2012 Notable Children's Recording by the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association)
The day Minerva and Keira King were born, they made news around the world. Keira was born Black like Mama, but Minni was white like Daddy. Now the twins are eleven, and while Minni knows that the four of them may look like a chessboard row walking down the street, in their own eyes, they're first and foremost the close-knit King family.
Then Grandmother Johnson calls and sweeps the twins off on a ten-day trip to the South where they will compete for the title of Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America. Minni is mortified, but Keira assures her that together they'll make it through the experience. Living with their grandmother is not easy, however, and the sisters' relationship begins to buckle under the strain.
Minni has always believed that no matter how different she and Keira look to the world, they share a bond of the heart that goes deeper. Now she'll find out if that's true.
Selected to the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2011 list by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council
Nominated to the American Library Association's Notable Books discussion list for 2011
2011 Skipping Stones Honor Award from Skipping Stones Multicultural Children's Magazine
Nominated for Michigan and New Jersey state books awards
Read about the twins who inspired this story, and other examples of “Black and white” twins:
“Frazier takes a fearless look at the complex issues of race, identity, and prejudice beyond and within the Black community in this lively, deeply felt novel in which nothing, including love, is black-and-white.”
Cooperative Children's Book Center (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
“A novel with a great deal of heart indeed…”
Booklist
“Frazier addresses issues facing mixed-race children with a grace and humor that keep her from being pedantic. The story is enjoyable in its own right, but will also encourage readers to rethink racial boundaries and what it means to be black or white in America.”
School Library Journal
“Funny and deeply affecting… Frazier highlights the contradictions, absurdities, humor and pain that accompany life as a mixed-race tween. Never didactic, this is the richest portrait of multiracial identity and family since Virginia Hamilton’s 1976 novel Arilla Sun Down. An outstanding achievement.”
Kirkus
“Not only does Frazier raise questions worth pondering, but her ability to round out each character, looking past easy explanations for attitude, is impressive. She also leavens the whole with easy humor and builds suspense over the pageant itself… A novel with a great deal of heart indeed…”
Booklist