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    My Year in the Middle
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    My Year in the Middle
    Unavailable
    My Year in the Middle
    Audiobook6 hours

    My Year in the Middle

    Written by Lila Quintero Weaver

    Narrated by Almarie Guerra

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In a racially polarized classroom in 1970 Alabama, Lu's talent for running track makes her a new best friend—and tests her mettle as she navigates the school's social cliques.

    Miss Garrett's classroom is like every other at our school. White kids sit on one side and black kids on the other. I'm one of the few middle-rowers who split the difference.

    Sixth-grader Lu Olivera just wants to keep her head down and get along with everyone in her class. Trouble is, Lu's old friends have been changing lately—acting boy crazy and making snide remarks about Lu's newfound talent for running track. Lu's secret hope for a new friend is fellow runner Belinda Gresham, but in 1970 Red Grove, Alabama, blacks and whites don't mix. As segregationist ex-governor George Wallace ramps up his campaign against the current governor, Albert Brewer, growing tensions in the state—and in the classroom—mean that Lu can't stay neutral about the racial divide at school. Will she find the gumption to stand up for what's right and to choose friends who do the same?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 10, 2018
    ISBN9781543687453
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for My Year in the Middle

    4.5/5

    19 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Amazing,but not what I thought it was going to be.
    • 4/5
      Excellent own voices fictionalized memoir set in Alabama in 1970, just after desegregation. The more the book goes on, the more Lu discovers that the middle is a very uncomfortable place to be. This is the year where she discovers her love of running, finds new friends and loses old ones, starts to think about boys and finds, in the end, that she needs to make a stand. It's an eventful 6th grade year. I like that most of her battles are social ones, and that while she is hesitant in deciding how to handle them, she learns a lot about being true to herself. The pacing is steady, and Lu's somewhat neutral social status (identifying as neither white nor black, with parents who view themselves as foreigners, outside the local politics) gives her an interesting perspective. The book is also chock-a-block with 1970s slang and music, something I think both kids and adults will find entertaining.

      The one thing I wish had been handled differently -- Lu goes to a gubernatorial rally that ends up being full of anti-integration rhetoric. She very quickly realizes that she went there for the wrong reasons, and that she regrets going. When the fact that she went is found out and causes a ruction with her friend, she makes it clear that she hated being there, and later gives up a good grade on an extra credit assignment that talks about the rally, because she feels so bad about going. I think this whole situation is a missed opportunity -- to say hey, I made a mistake, but I learned from it. I listened to someone that I didn't think I would agree with, and I confirmed that I don't believe those things. I heard for myself what the opposition is saying, and I made up my own mind. -- none of those things (all of which happened) are things to feel guilty and ashamed about. That's what intelligent, critical thinkers do -- they go directly to the source and they make up their own minds. We're a country of people who have shut the door on listening to one another, and I simply wish that the positive effects of this experience had been teased out more.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      A middle grade story about racism in the 1970s United States, from an unusual perspective. A little simplistic, but it is for younger readers.