In free verse, Mimi Yoshiko Oliver narrates her seventh grade year at a new school in 1969 Vermont. Mimi's ethnicity puzzles people: on the first day of school, a classmate asks, "What are you?" a question Mimi often hears: "I am/ half my Japanese mother,/ half my Black father,/ and all me." Her father advises, " `be kind, be respectful, and persist.'/ `Like raindrops on granite,' I say,/ because we know that's how I persist-/ drip, drip, drip/ until the granite cracks." Mimi makes friends, excels academically, and dreams of being an astronaut; however, "I feel like I have to be/ twice as smart and funny at school/ and twice as nice and forgiving in my neighborhood." Throughout the year, Mimi confronts barriers; when told that girls take home economics and boys take shop, she politely and repeatedly protests this rule, eventually engaging in civil disobedience. When the school suspends her, her classmates organize a sit-in. Through the perspective of this clear-eyed, courageous heroine, Hilton (Found Things) powerfully recreates a time of momentous transition in American history. Ages 8-12. Agent: Josh Adams, Adams Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

*Starred Review* Mimi Yoshiko Oliver and her family just moved from Berkeley, California, to Hillsborough, Vermont, where she immediately encounters barrier after barrier to overcome. Mimi's goal is to become an astronaut; however, it's 1969, a time when young girls are encouraged to become mothers, secretaries, teachers, or nurses. She also wants to fit in at school. That was easy at her school in Berkeley, where there were kids from every background, but in white-populated Vermont, she stands out as the only half black, half Japanese student. Mimi also goes against the grain by entering the science fair and protesting (via courteous civil disobedience) not being allowed to take the shop class instead of home economics. Persistent like raindrops on granite drip, drip, drip she makes friends, finds solutions, and, in being true to herself, gains respect. Written as a novel in verse, the book captures the key snapshots of Mimi's journey through a transitional time in our history. Mimi's voice as narrator is clear and focused: she must figure out who she is, instead of answering the question, What are you? Out of respect for her parents, the decisions she makes pull from both halves to make a whole. Perfect for readers who straddle societies, feel they don't fit in, or need that confirmation of self-celebration.--Fredriksen, Jeanne Copyright 2015 Booklist

Perhaps a few books manage to capture tweendom's chaos, but too few catch its poetry. Hilton offers readers the indelible character of Mimi, a half-Japanese, half-black seventh-grader who travels with her mom, Emiko, from their old home in Berkeley, California, to Vermont, where her dad, James, works as a college professor. She's the new kid at her school during the second half of the 1969 school yeararound the time the U.S. starts withdrawing troops from Vietnam and lands on the moon. As Mimi hitches her career dreams to the lunar landing, microaggressionsthose daily intentional and unintentional slights, snubs, and insults aimed at people solely because they belong to a marginalized group like Mimi and her interracial familydrag her back to Earth. Spare verse viscerally evokes the shattering impacts these everyday forms of bigotry from family, teachers, neighbors, townspeople, and schoolmates ("I'm trying hard to smile / and pretend I don't see / that kids are making squint-eyes at me") cause even as Mimi makes fast pals with Stacey, the Southern white girl with "that accent / as fragrant as lilacs," and a slower, deeper bond with Timothy, the white boy living next door. In her acknowledgments, the author states that Mimi is "for anyone who has big dreams but is short on courage." By the book's end, readers will be moved by the empathetic lyricism of Mimi's maturing voice. (glossary, pronunciation guide) (Verse/historical fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In verse ranging from strictly narrative to absolutely lyrical, Hilton tells of a Californian girl transplanted to Vermont in 1969. Mimi is the daughter of an African American father and a Japanese mother, which would render her an oddity in the community even if she didn't aspire to be an astronaut and prefer taking shop class to home ec. Perceptive, sensitive, and much-needed. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Gr 4-8-Mimi tells her story in this novel in verse that will resonate with fans of Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming (Penguin, 2014). The seventh grader describes arriving in small-town Vermont from Berkeley in 1969. While filling out a form, the teen is perplexed by which ethnicity to check off: her father is a black college professor, and her mother is Japanese (they married when he was a soldier stationed overseas). In 1969, mixed race is not an option on the form, nor is Oriental the same as Japanese. Mimi is fascinated by space and the moon landing. She designs a science project for school that requires the use of power tools-all this during a time when girls were not expected to be interested in science and were required to take home economics rather than shop. When Mimi bucks convention, there are repercussions and punishments. She weathers these with support from a smart girlfriend as well as a loyal and tender boy next door. Mimi's parents are engaged in and support the budding scientist's projects. This novel stands out with its thoughtful portrayal of race and its embrace of girls in science and technical fields. The verse, though spare, is powerful and evocative, perfectly capturing Mimi's emotional journey. VERDICT An excellent addition to the growing shelf of novels in verse with culturally diverse protagonists.-Amy Thurow, New Glarus School District, WI © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE has been engulfed in a conversation on the lack of books featuring minority characters. This call for diversity has been accompanied by uncomfortable yet necessary debates about what constitutes quality representation, and few people agree on that. Two new novels about biracial girls illustrate the range of approaches authors can take to these issues. Emma Shevah's "Dream On, Amber" is narrated in a spunky, endearing voice by Amber Miyamoto, who is many things: a big sister, a talented artist, a germophobe and an 11-year-old girl living in South London with her Italian mom and 6-year-old sister, Bella. Amber's Japanese father left their family five years ago, and his absence sometimes feels like "a massive black hole" to her: "But that's only sometimes." When Bella writes a letter to their father and gives it to Amber to mail, despite neither of them knowing his whereabouts, Amber writes back, pretending to be their dad. This sets off consequences that Amber handles with the assistance of an imaginary father, whom she addresses somewhat confusingly as "you." At the same time, Amber enters a new middle school where she encounters clueless questions about her ethnic identity, annoying yet supportive teachers, potential new friends and her first crush. Though "Dream On, Amber" is ripe with opportunities for didacticism, Amber's appealingly oddball voice makes the lessons go down easy. "Dream On, Amber" also does something unusual for a children's book that grapples with race: It does not solve Amber's biracial identity crisis. Though Amber struggles with the questions of her missing father and Japanese identity, the biggest lesson of this book is that sometimes there are no answers. In "Full Cicada Moon," Marilyn Hilton's novel in verse set in 1969, a 12-year-old aspiring astronaut named Mimi has moved with her Japanese mother from multicultural Berkeley to snowy Vermont, where her African-American father has a new college teaching job. Mimi endures a checklist of racist encounters with quiet maturity, and many of her experiences are deftly rendered with beautiful phrases. She's a smart, self-reliant girl with an interesting story. But ultimately the book turns into a virtuous parable about race that favors white experiences over Mimi's. In two climactic scenes that both deploy the word "pardon," Mimi and her mother forgive white people for racist behavior. First, Mimi forgives a friend and her mom for not inviting her to their house because of her race. Mimi explains: "I hug Stacey and then her mom/and pardon them/ for their confusion/about everything, because,/just like me, they are learning/how to take/one small step." Then, a white neighbor who has treated her family poorly asks Mimi's mother to forgive him after he reveals that he flew bombing missions over Tokyo during World War II. Mimi's mom, who lived through the nuclear bombing in Hiroshima, actually says to him, "You are pardoned." For pardoning these white people, Mimi and her family are rewarded by being welcomed into the white community, and their racial identities become acceptable to the people who had rejected them. In reality, people who are not white forgive - or at least make peace with - white people's racist acts all the time, but "Full Cicada Moon" has oversimplified complex situations. Although complicating factors such as Japanese aggression, Japanese internment, the civil rights movement and interracial marriage are mentioned, they are like scenery glimpsed through a moving bus's window. They seem detached from Mimi's lived experience rather than an integral part of her. The spare, first-person verse structure may make it difficult to delve into these issues, but the lack of context flattens what could have been a wonderful story. Instead of being a multidimensional character rooted in her family's history, Mimi is a means through which white racism can be forgiven. This old-fashioned novel about race earnestly tries to bridge the gap between white and nonwhite through an uplifting tale of cross-cultural understanding. In 2015, that feels distinctly dated. MALINDA LO'S latest work of fiction is "Tremontaine," a collaborative serial.