Partly Cloudy by Tanita S. Davis

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers. Party Cloudy was another cover grab. I saw the cover and it said for fans of From the Desk of Zoe Washington and I said to myself that this would be an interesting read. I received an arc from HarperCollins Children's Book in exchange for review. 

Madlyn has to make some big adjustments in her life. Last year was rocky with her father losing his job, her family having to move to a new home, and Madlyn having to start a school she didn't feel safe or welcome at. This year things are looking up as her father has a new job on the East Coast. But her mother thinks she'll have a better experience in a different school district. In order to attend her new school she must movie in with her Great Uncle, Papa Lobo and live with him during the week. If that adjustment wasn't hard enough she also has to deal with her mother taking on more work hours.

She's adjusting to the new school and  getting to know her Uncle's neighbor Jean who keeps an eye out for her. While the new school seems nice she also notices she's the only one that looks like her in the school. A new friend, Natalie seems to be uneasy every time Jean is around and Madlyn finds out from another friend that the girl dislikes Black boys because one was a bully towards her at an old school.  Madlyn at the same time also meets a neighbor who while very kind to her has issues with Papa Lobo and Jean.

This book almost felt like I was reading two different books. One book was a beautiful story about a girl moving in with her Great Uncle and learning that sometimes sacrifices do have to be made to ensure you live a better life. Madlyn is learning to adjust to things being different from what she's used to with her Great Uncle's creole sayings and sometimes unconventional way of doing things. That aspect of the book I enjoyed. The other book was telling a story about the only Black girl in class dealing with micro and macro aggressions at her new school. But for some reasons the book didn't mesh well for me combining all these elements.

When it came to racism it was shown in the forms of both the older neighbor and Natalie and it feels like it was danced around for most of the story. It makes Madlyn feel uneasy throughout but the word racism doesn't even appear until 70% into the story. She refuses to confront Natalie about it until a crisis so that didn't help either because it felt like the book was ending when the conversation was finally being had. It actually made it hard to continue reading because I kept waiting for her to have the courage to open up about her feelings rather than awkwardly dancer around Natalie. People don't change overnight so you don't get to see what happens after it's addressed.

Also while I appreciated the social worker mother being supportive and reminding her daughter that it's not her job to educate and explain things to people I feel like that's what ended up happening anyway. Madlyn has to take the bigger person approach both in situations with Natalie and again with the prejudiced neighbor. It feels like Black people always have to take the be the better person approach. Also it could've dove a little deeper into why the neighbor and Natalie didn't have a problem with Madlyn as a Black girl but had an uneasiness around Black boys and men. Conversations stayed at the surface in that regard. 

Madlyn also read younger than her age to me. She's in 7th grade and around age 12/13. But to me she read more like a 9/10 year old and I actually had to remind myself that she's a little older. Her previous school was definitely from how it was described a primarily Black, underfunded school in a bad area.  I'm not sure what the dynamics were of the area they lived in prior though it sounds like it was a more diverse area.

This book did make me think about the best ways to handle dealing with a child experiencing racism. So hopefully it encourages more discussions about how to approach that.