Silhouetted by the Blue

Silhouetted by the Blue by Traci L. Jones, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award winning author of Standing Against the Wind (another one of my favorites), is about a family struggling to cope with the loss of their wife/mother from a tragic car accident. Serena, a seventh grader, has been chosen to be the lead performer in her school production of The Wiz. Sadly, Serena’s little brother, Henry, is being left out at school by kids who don’t want to catch the “dead mommy cooties” from him. This causes Henry to act out and get in trouble at school. Their father is blue – won’t get out of his pajamas, won’t shop for groceries, doesn’t participate in life at all. Serena is burdened with her own grief, having to be responsible for Henry and running the household, and trying to keep up with her own busy middle school life. I appreciate that in both Standing Against the Wind and Silhouetted by the Blue, Jones gives us a great male role model who steps up to help the female protagonist. Elijah, Serena’s classmate, is the nice guy at school who comes to the rescue so many times and truly cares about her. Why is her father giving away items that have been so important to him? Will Serena finally ask for help when she can no longer balance things at home and at school? Read Silhouetted by the Blue to find out.