BROTHER HOOD

Nate’s dual life allows him to be comfortable at Fletcher, his exclusive, private boarding school, and on his home territory in Harlem. Different places require different threads, language, and behavior, and Nate switches, chameleon-like, between his two personas. McDonald shows his dexterity and makes clear the ease with which he juggles the two, while simultaneously revealing to the reader the upside and downside of both. The haughty elitism of some classmates and their parents, as well as the outright racism of an opposing lacrosse team, makes clear the difficulties of the situation. There is a lot of exposition about the environment of Harlem at the beginning and characters only slowly reveal themselves. The crucial conflict, which highlights the choices Nate must make and his moral responsibilities in both environments builds from this gradual revelation of each culture. This lacks the depth of romance and lyrical writing that was evidenced in Walter Dean Myers’s Beast (2003), but has an authenticity and immediacy that will appeal as well as being a great title for discussion. (Fiction. YA)