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THE NEW ONE by Jacqueline Turner Banks

THE NEW ONE

by Jacqueline Turner Banks

Pub Date: April 1st, 1994
ISBN: 0-395-66610-4
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Banks returns to the small Kentucky town featured in Project Wheels (1993) for another lightweight, deftly written episode in the lives of an ethnically mixed group of sixth graders. Jury Jenkins is drawn to new African-American classmate Ayreal, which puts him at odds with his twin, Judge, and friends Faye and Angela, who don't quite trust Ayreal; meanwhile, Jury's mother, considering remarriage, is hanging out with an older man with very conservative ideas. Readers will enjoy watching Jury try to puzzle out the odd behavior of girls and grownups and are sure to get the point when Ayreal explains her initial coldness to Angela by describing how she overheard the father of another white friend make racist remarks. Unforced humor and lively, simply drawn characters make the lessons palatable. (Fiction. 10-12)