Bluish

When a person sees or meets another person that is very different from him or her, what does he or she do? Dreenie, the main character in Virginia Hamilton's book, Bluish, toiled with the dilemma of how to become friends with a girl who was strangely different from anyone she had ever met. Dreenie lived a normal life in one of New York's many apartment buildings. Her life seemed almost like a routine. Unless she was going on a school field trip or doing a project, Dreenie's days were very similar. Then a new girl came to Dreenie's school. Her name was Natalie. Natalie was shockingly different. She was pale like moonlight, and you could see her "blue" veins clearly through her milky skin. This was one of the effects of the disease Natalie had, and why she was called "Bluish" by the other students who avoided and stared at her. Natalie made Dreenie uncomfortable, especially since she was afraid to catch Natalie's disease. One day, the teacher assigned a group project and put Dreenie, her friend Tuli, and Natalie together. As Dreenie discovered the real person behind the pale skin and blue veins, she learned not to judge people before getting to know them. Dreenie almost missed an opportunity to make a good friend. In life, we all face the problem of overcoming the differences in others. Bluish, by Virginia Hamilton, covers this. In our own way, it is up to us to answer the question," How do I respect and be friends with someone who is very different?"

Dreenie is exposed to new things. She's in an alternative school where kids refer to teachers by first names. Her friend, Tuli, pretends she's Newyo-rican and relies on Dreenie to care for her, which is sometimes annoying since Dreenie already has to look after Willie, her own little sister. However, the newest intriguing person in Dreenie's life, the person that seems most like Dreenie, is Bluish. Kids at school call her Bluish because her skin is pale with bluish veins. Bluish's mother says the nickname "Blewish" is derogatory and refers to her daughter's bi-racial ethnicity, Black and Jewish. To Dreenie, Bluish is the color of the "Pale moonlight." Bluish is sadness. Bluish is the girl in the wheelchair, gets chemotherapy and only comes to school sometimes. Bluish is alone. Bluish is her shadow. Bluish is always on her mind. Bluish is a part of her. Hamilton's story addresses issues upper elementary school children begin to face. Being different and finding acceptance is a challenge at this age. In Hamilton's novel we see how kids, given unusual circumstances, accommodate and adapt to the unique. Differences are overcome when people take time to share, communicate, understand, adapt to, and encompass one another. In other words, "Bluish is, because we are; we are, because Bluish---is---us!" Parts of Hamilton's novel are formatted to depict diary entries. Her writing style is compliments the story's action. Sometimes thoughts are simply stated. Sometimes the essence of the writing is poetic. Ideas are not always complete with a beginning, middle, or end. Sometimes an idea just passes through and then we're on to the next that, in turn, may become more solid, grounded, sure. It feels as though the writing is that of a child writing diary entries. Children reading this novel should be able to jump right in and enjoy for this very reason.

"Bluish" is a novel by Virginia Hamilton, a prolific and multiple award-winning author of books for young readers. "Bluish" tells the story of Dreenie, a young girl who attends a magnet school in New York City with her brainy (but annoying) younger sister, Willie, and their eccentric friend Tuli. When a pale-skinned, apparently ill girl in a wheelchair joins her class, Dreenie is fascinated by her. The girl is nicknamed "Bluish" due to her bluish complexion. Dreenie begins a diary documenting her evolving relationship with Bluish."Bluish" is a gentle, moving novel about overcoming fear of someone who is different. The book is a hopeful celebration of childhood friendship. A nice touch is the fact that entries from Dreenie's journal are interspersed between the chapters of the novel. The book also offers an interesting perspective on the multicultural, multifaith world of NYC schoolkids; there's even a little primer on the celebration of Kwanzaa. Overall, an impressive effort from Hamilton.

This book is for middle school youngsters, 5th and 6th grade, although it would be appropriate for a precocious 4th grader and slower 7th grade readers. It is the story of three young girls who become friends after a very unlikely start. The title refers to the skin color of a sick young girl in the protagonist's Dreenie's class; a girl who is pale, weak and restricted to a wheelchair. All of the children, including Dreenie are afraid of the girl and try to avoid her. Later on it becomes clearer that most of them do not dislike her; instead they are afraid of her and the thought of sickness and dying. Virginia Hamilton who has more than a few titles for young readers under her belt writes Bluish. Unlike some of her fantasy-based work, this is squarely set in contemporary New York with all the attendant urban problems we see on the news. For example, Dreenie almost jumps out of her skin while waiting for her father downstairs in their apartment building. Although she was warned not to go outside, she does just that, looking left and right for her father. Instead he comes in front of her and cautions her yet again that she has to look three ways: left, right and across. It isn't stated, but youngsters have received enough parental warnings and seen enough news shows about abduction to the author's point.The book is written in a different type of style - it ping pongs back and forth between a journal format (Dreenie's diary) and a regular third person narrative style. While it was a bit unsettling for me as an adult to get used to the format, young people may not have as many preconceived notions of what a novel should look like. Dreenie has a younger sister she has to watch over every afternoon until her parents come home from work, again very realistic of today's world for many youngsters. The younger sister, Willie, of course irritates her big sister to no end, and makes matters worse by being an extremely bright and outspoken child. Every so often her resentment at being so responsible for her sister comes through, as it does in some of her later conversations with Natalie or "Bluish" as Dreenie calls her.The second key figure in the friendship is Tuli, a bi-racial youngster who lives with her Grandmother and often pretends to be Spanish. Tuli is loud and energetic; highly observant of her surroundings and people and is often very needy. Sometimes so much so that Dreenie feels like she has yet another sibling to watch over. Dreenie feels as if Tuli tries to be too much a part of her family and should spend more time with her Grandmother.Their teacher who tells them she has leukemia but is on the mend finally explains Natalie's illness. The disease requires that she rests a lot and that she sometimes vomits in class as a result of chemotherapy. Natalie is bi-racial as well with a black father and a Jewish mother who initially takes offense at her daughter's nickname, mistakenly thinking it is a crass put down of being black an

Bluish is a well crafted, insightful, interesting children's books about Dreenie, a fifth grader growing up in NYC and about her experiences making friends at a new school. It is a sensitive portrait of a girl coming to awareness of life--and of death. It isn't about being African American (as Dreenie is) or about being interracial (as Tuli is) or about being bi-cultural (as Natalie is). It isn't about being female or being an older or younger sister or a latchkey child. It isn't about having cancer or about holidays at Christmastime or about writing. It's not about getting a pet or being a New Yorker, although it touches on all of these as it shows Dreenie learning about the world--and about herself--one year when she is eleven years old and making friends with two girls very different from herself--and yet very similar. One friend happens to be--or wants to be--Spanish. One girl happens to have cancer. But we don't read the book to learn about cancer or how it fells to be growing up half Jewish or African American. We read it to experience what it is like to be Dreenie--to be all alone in a new school and then suddenly fascinated by a girl who is wrestling with a life threatening disease. Dreenie can't know what it's like to have cancer--and neither can we. We simply see things through Dreenie's eyes, feeling what she feels as she moves through the story. The obok is powerful because it takes us into Dreenie's skin and keeps us there from beginning to end, sharing her experiences and making these new friends.