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    Bluish
    Bluish
    Bluish
    Ebook102 pages1 hour

    Bluish

    By Virginia Hamilton

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    All of the kids at school stay away from “Bluish,” but when Dreenie and Tuli learn to see beyond her differences, they discover a true friend Ten-year-old Natalie is different from the other kids at her New York City magnet school: She is often absent, wears a knit cap, and uses a wheelchair. Her classmates have nicknamed her “Bluish” because her pale skin is tinted blue from chemotherapy. Dreenie is fascinated by and a bit frightened of Bluish—she watches her from afar and writes about her in her journal. As the school year progresses, Dreenie and her friend Tuli learn to see beyond Bluish’s differences and discover a fiercely independent, spirited girl who isn’t so different from them after all. But it’s not easy being friends with someone who’s sick, and Dreenie doesn’t always know how to act. Hamilton delivers a lesson of compassion and demonstrates the power of friendship to overcome even the most trying of situations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateFeb 14, 2012
    ISBN9781453246719
    Bluish
    Author

    Virginia Hamilton

    Virginia Hamilton (1934–2002) was the author of over forty books for children, young adults, and their older allies. Throughout a career that spanned four decades, Hamilton earned numerous accolades for her work, including nearly every major award available to writers of youth literature. In 1974, M.C. Higgins, the Great earned Hamilton the National Book Award, the Newbery Medal (which she was the first African-American author to receive), and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, three of the field’s most prestigious awards. She received the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition bestowed on a writer of books for young readers, in 1992, and in 1995 became the first children’s book author to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, or “Genius Award.” She was also the recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award.

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    Reviews for Bluish

    3/5

    24 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      "Bluish," a very unique perspective found story that one of my teachers read in my former school. I found this book very interesting since it talked about this nick-named girl, "Bluish," had a cancer related disease called "leukemia" meaning too much increase of white blood cells causing bone marrow or blood cancer. ( Scientific form of this disease is: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia). Her class fellows find her very strange and weird as in the sense of how she always wears her cap, since she is bald and no eyebrows as said, because of her disease. Some of her classmates became friends with Bluish. More features are in this book, if you were to read it. I enjoyed listening to the book from my teacher in my former school. (:
    • 1/5
      Personal response: This was absolutely dreadful. I made the mistake of listening to this as an audio book. I may have actually found the experience to be more pleasant had I read it, but it was only available as an audio book at my library. It started out interesting and continues to have moments of beautiful description, particularly when describing the character everyone calls ' Bluish'. However, the dialogue of Tuli, a biracial little girl who thinks she's Spanish, is nothing but irritating especially when being said out loud. Not surprising that it took me 1 month to get through a less than 4-hour audio file.grades 4 - 8curricular connections:Great for a book on tolerance of differences. The characters are richly unique and represent many perspectives of the human experience

    Book preview

    Bluish - Virginia Hamilton

    Bluish

    Virginia Hamilton

    To the wonderful fifth grade, to teacher Judy Davis, and to principal Shelley Harwayne, all at PS 290,

    Manhattan New School, New York City.

    Thanks for showing me your school, for the rousing discussions of my book project, and for graciously answering my many questions.

    You are an inspiration.

    Thanks go to Jaime Levi Adoff, founder of Blueish Music.

    He generously provided the word and its fine points, which gave me the idea for this book.

    Contents

    JOURNAL: The First Time I Saw Her

    CHAPTER ONE: Dreenie

    CHAPTER TWO: Tuli

    JOURNAL: Bluish: Time Passes. She Comes And Goes.

    CHAPTER THREE: Suppertime

    CHAPTER FOUR: The Project

    JOURNAL: Bluish: What Bluish Had To Say

    CHAPTER FIVE: It’s Going to Get Fun!

    CHAPTER SIX: All

    JOURNAL: Bluish: Trip Out In The Field, The Vivarium

    CHAPTER SEVEN: All Us

    JOURNAL: A Record Of Bluish—It’s A New Year

    A Biography of Virginia Hamilton

    JOURNAL

    The First Time I Saw Her

    Bluish. In school.

    She was there with her puppy. Nobody brings a dog to school! It was right in her arms.

    Plus, some kids knew her. I didn’t and Tuli didn’t.

    This girl wears a hat, like half a bowl. Sometimes, trying to stand up and walk.

    Ms. Baker said, Natalie, do as much as you feel like. Don’t try to do everything.

    Natalie is this girl’s name. But that’s not what kids call her. Call her Bluish and grin and look at her hard. Bluish fits her. This girl is like moonlight. So pale you see the blue veins all over. You can tell though, once she had some color.

    I watch her all the time. She looks real tired. And lets the puppy sit on the floor. It’s all black as night. She said its name. Bucky? I didn’t get it. No! Its name is Lucky.

    Never seen anyone like her up close. This girl.

    Bluish closes her eyes. Her hands look like moonlight fishes about to dive and flop off the arms of her wheelchair.

    Bluish: Another Day

    After recess, Bluish sat outside of the classroom. Right in the middle of the hall. So when the buzzer rang we all had to go around her in her chair.

    Some boy tried to push her but it was braked I guess. The chair didn’t move.

    The pushing all of a sudden made her jump like somebody hit her. Her eyes got real big. I was there.

    Started to say: You want me to move you over? But I said: You want me to bring you inside the classroom?

    She was looking at me very tough.

    I’m sitting right here until they look at me! That’s what she said too. Because everybody is pretending not to see her.

    She has all these nerves that jiggle her. Her voice is squeaky. Never saw a kid with a teeny mouth like hers. Little line mouth upside-down smile. Makes her look like she’s about to bawl.

    Bluish: And Next

    Outside. Today I almost fell on the sidewalk. Twice. Black ice. But this is not about me.

    She was outside, too. Bluish.

    Do I tell Mom about this girl?

    She gets on one of the small school buses. I think maybe she comes from across town. She got on the bus with her puppy. A lift rode them up and the driver pulled her chair inside.

    I like her hats. Different one today. Blue velvet.

    This journal, excuse my mistakes. This is not for school. I’m not looking for a grade. Just all about Bluish.

    I love her puppy.

    CHAPTER ONE

    Dreenie

    WHOOP! DREENIE YELLED ABOVE the street noise.

    She and her little sister were slipping, then sliding, as Dreenie picked their way along the icy sidewalk.

    School was out for the day. Bunches of kids, talking loud, were heading over to Broadway.

    Bluish.

    Like a streak going through Dreenie, reminding her. Pale, glowing, fluttery, was the picture in her mind.

    All around, brakes screeched and horns blasted. Cars and taxis slid through the slush.

    Bluish.

    Dreenie blinked into the hard bits of snow that hit her face. She shouldered her way through throngs of shoppers. Not quite shoving, but pushing through crowds of students and neighborhood folks. Seeing all the holiday decorations up and down Amsterdam Avenue.

    Older women of the neighborhood with their shopping carts acted afraid they would be pushed. They went so slow! Dreenie eased around them so her little sister wouldn’t tumble into them.

    That had happened before. One woman had looked frightened, even though Dreenie had said she was sorry.

    Dreenie was muscled and tall for her age. She often looked angry, even when she was not. She could pretend to be really tough. The woman had clutched her purse. It made Dreenie and her little sister feel bad, that someone would think they’d take what didn’t belong to them. Worst was seeing Willeva’s hurt face.

    It was Dreenie’s job to keep everything even. Keep Willeva—everybody called her Willie—in place right next to her.

    Good, Dreenie thought. Finished with school for the day. She counted the days until holiday time. Not far off now. A couple of weeks. And she took hold of Willie by her coat sleeve, pulling her along.

    Let go of me, Drain! Willie hollered, trying to break loose. Who do you think you are, Drain?

    Don’t call me that! Dreenie warned.

    "I know who your mama ain’t, Drain, Willie cried. Because you sure ain’t one of us Anneva and Gerald Browns! Drain!"

    One more time, Dreenie warned again. "And stop with the ain’t." Why is she such a pain?

    She and Willie went to the same school and were two grades apart. Lucky to transfer in, a quarter of the way, with school already started. Her dad thought it’d be a better school for them.

    Willie was so smart, the teacher let her sit and observe, they called it, in the stock market once a week. It was a class full of brainy nerds. Willie was only in third

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