When the Black Girl Sings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In this moving young adult novel, acclaimed author Bil Wright tells the story of one girl’s search to find a home where she truly belongs.
Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She’s also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one Sunday, Lahni hears the amazing gospel choir, and her life takes an unexpected turn.
It so happens that one of Lahni’s teachers, Mr. Faringhelli, has nominated her for a talent competition, and she is expected to perform a song in front of the whole school. Lahni decides to join the church choir to help her become a better singer. But what starts out as a way to practice singing becomes a place of belonging and a means for Lahni to discover her own identity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wright (Sunday You Learn How to Box) grabs hold of hard-hitting issues in a realistic and poignant novel that fully commands the audience's attention. Fourteen-year-old Lahni Schuler attempts to come to terms both with her status as the only black student in a school for privileged girls and with the news that her white adoptive parents are separating. This heavily freighted narrative evolves into an inspiring story as Lahni discovers a talent for singing and hidden inner strength. Instead of further dramatizing the negative aspects of Lahni's situation, Wright focuses on his character's efforts to surmount them a strategy that enables readers to feel empowered alongside Lahni. The other major characters the passionate gospel choir director, Marcus Delacroix III, and the charismatic soloist, Carietta Chisolm may look like "round, brown, salt and pepper shakers with hair, in blue robes with red satin stoles" the first time she sees them at the front of the church where they sing, but they practically jump off the page with their positive energy and purpose, further amplifying the novel's vivacious spirit. In the end, Lahni is still a work in progress which, as Wright illustrates, is the point. Ages 12-up.
