Eleven-year-old twins Minni and Keira are far from identical. Outgoing Keira has dark brown skin, hair, and eyes like their African American mom. Shy Minni has light skin, red hair, and blue eyes like their Irish American dad. The sisters are visiting their African American grandmother to participate in the Miss Black Pearl preteen program—an event Minni dreads, while Keira can’t wait to perform. The girls find plenty of ways to make fun of their strict, old-fashioned grandmother, but some things are too painful for laughter. Grandmother Johnson passionately shares memories of the civil rights movement, but also clearly favors Minni and makes critical comments about Keira’s dark skin and kinky hair. This, along with Keira’s defense of Minni after another contender nastily questions Minni’s blackness, makes Minni think more about what it’s like for Keira in their community back home, where theirs is the only African American family. It also makes Minni feel guilty for not speaking out when her sister has faced overt racism, and uncertain about her own racial identity. Sundee T. Frazier takes a fearless look at the complex issues of race, identity, and prejudice beyond and within the Black community in this lively, deeply felt novel in which nothing, including love, is black-and-white. (Ages 10–13)

The story of biracial twin sisters—one black, one white—and the summer that tests their strong bond, from the author of Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award-winner Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It.
 
When Minerva and Keira King were born, they made headlines: Keira is black like Mama, but Minni is white like Daddy. Together the family might look like part of a chessboard row, but they are first and foremost the close-knit Kings. Then Grandmother Johnson calls, to invite the twins down South to compete for the title of Miss Black Pearl Preteen of America.
     Minni dreads the spotlight, but Keira assures her that together they'll get through their stay with Grandmother Johnson. But when their grandmother's bias against Keira reveals itself, Keira pulls away from her twin. Minni has always believed that no matter how different she and Keira are, they share a deep bond of the heart. Now she'll find out whether that’s really true.

"One luminous pearl of a sister story."--RITA WILLIAMS-GARCIA, author of the Newbery Honor Award-winner One Crazy Summer

Winner of the Skipping Stone Honor Award
 
*"Frazier highlights the contradictions, absurdities, humor, and pain that accompany life as a mixed-race tween. Never didactic, this is the richest portrait of multiracial identity and family since Virginia Hamilton's 1976 novel Arilla Sun Down. An outstanding achievement."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred
 
*"Not only does Frazier raise questions worth pondering, but her ability to round out each character, looking past easy explanations for attitude, is impressive. . . . A novel with a great deal of heart indeed."—Booklist, Starred