That’s when I made up my mind. Enough is enough. I deserve better than for people to treat me any old way they want. But saying that is one thing, making it happen is something else.
The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake is about Maleeka who is constantly picked on and is just trying to survive middle school. Then, a new teacher arrives and shakes things up.
What I Liked
– I am a sucker for stories about The Teacher Who Made a Difference, and I really like that Miss Saunders forces Maleeka to want more for herself through the assignment of a journal. It really works well because Maleeka is very resistant to Miss Saunders, so it never turns into the kind of inspirational drivel you might expect.
– At first, I was annoyed that Maleeka doesn’t stand up for herself, but, like the quote says, it’s easy to want something to change and hard to make it happen. Especially when you have aligned yourself with one of the school’s biggest bullies like Maleeka has. Even though she wants to do and be better, it’s hard for her because she reached out to Charlese and now she’s stuck with her. And is afraid of her. And values the times that Charlese does stand up for her.
– I really like the themes Flake explores, and she has the culture of middle school pretty down pat. I remember being picked on for no discernible reason, and that dread of “what will they find to say about me next?” is pretty accurately captured. And I especially love how well she keys into Maleeka’s need to make herself invisible so much so that Maleeka downplays her intelligence so she doesn’t call extra attention to herself. At the same time, though, Maleeka can’t hide how capable and smart she is.
– I love the cover. It’s so striking.
What I Didn’t Like
– The plotting and characterization are a little shoddy. Mostly, I don’t understand the motivations of the secondary characters, and they’re a little flatter than I’d like. For example, Charlese is really nice to Maleeka and really horrible to her. But I don’t understand Charlese at all. What makes her tick? Even if the niceness is conditional on Maleeka doing her homework, would she really be so nice as to give her clothes to wear? And why? I just don’t get it. (I do understand why she’s a bully; I just don’t particularly understand her attitude towards Maleeka.)
The same can be said of Caleb. He’s introduced relatively late in the novel, but it’s not revealed until much later that he’s some sort of do-gooder. And, I’ll be honest, he is kind of cheesy. I found it hard to imagine some of the things he said coming from any of the boys I knew in middle school. That said, if it had been established earlier that that’s the kind of kid he is, I would’ve bought it more readily.
– I wanted more of Maleeka’s relationship with Sweets. They’re best friends, but there’s no real sense of that in the story.
– I wish the book were a little clearer that the way Maleeka looks and dresses isn’t really the issue (it’s touched on), but that she’s such an easy target. It’s obvious she craves her classmates’ acceptance, but if she had just realized that she can’t win for losing with those jokers and been okay with that, they would’ve left her alone. There was no real moment of realization there, which makes complete and total sense, but I just wish that someone had pointed it out. Obviously, that’s not the book Flake wrote or the main theme she wanted to explore (it’s more of a “do the right thing/be true to yourself/middle school sucks” deal), but still. I just wish it had been explicitly stated somewhere.
– Basically, I felt like the book could’ve been about fifty or so pages longer.
In conclusion: That said, I think this would be awesome for reluctant readers, probably because a lot of them would be able to strongly identify with Maleeka’s position in the school and her sense of alienation. Maleeka’s need to belong as well as the choices she makes because of that need make complete sense. She is completely relatable even as I wanted to shake some sense into her. I understood her, so in a lot of ways, the inconsistencies in the other characters didn’t really matter that much.
POC Challenge: 5/15; YA Reading Challenge: 9/75
The Englishist 
This was one of the most popular books in our library. Could never keep it on the shelves and every reluctant reader who practically had to be bribed to read, read and enjoyed this book.
If it works for the reader, I’ve learned to put my opinion on the back burner.
I did enjoy this one and I do appreciate the points you make. Flake hits the right points for the audience. I couldn’t keep Who Am I Without Him on the shelf either. In fact, it often didn’t come back.
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That’s not surprising. It’s so emotionally honest that the other stuff kind of doesn’t matter.
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i loved this book its awesome
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