Welcome to Windows & Mirrors, where we feature books that provide us windows to lives outside our own and mirrors to our shared common human experiences.

Today we are featuring BLENDED by Sharon M. Draper.

Because her parents are divorced, eleven-year-old Isabella feels like she’s literally torn between two different worlds. Every other week, she’s Isabella who hangs out with her black dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren in a fancy house. The next week she lives as Izzy in a tiny and very un-fancy house with her white mom and her boyfriend John-Mark.

Now that Isabella is getting older, she’s realizing the two worlds she lives in are even more divided than she once thought. With one black parent and one white, she doesn’t really look like either of them and easily tires of questions about her “exotic” looks. She becomes awakened to racism when she encounters it first-hand and feels compelled to figure out who she really is.

Her parents, who broke up because they couldn’t get along, seem to fight even more now that they’re divorced, and it ALWAYS has something to do with Isabella, making her feel more split in two than ever. When her parents both get engaged and plan their weddings for the same day, they get in their biggest fight ever, leaving Isabella so fractured, she worries she’ll never feel whole again. Isabella can’t imagine any possible way her family can be united ever again…and then the worst imaginable thing happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by a policeman. He mistakes Darren’s cell phone for a gun and opens fire.

I feel in love with Sharon Draper’s books when I read OUT OF MY MIND with my youngest daughter. It’s a story that stuck with both of us, as will BLENDED with its thoughtful commentary on racism, police violence, micro-aggressions, divorced family pressures, and socioeconomic class issues. Draper’s eleven-year-old girl voice is so perfectly textured and believable, kids will find it instantly relatable. Readers will both be educated and delightfully entertained by this timely read, which makes a wonderful classroom discussion book.

I listened to BLENDED on audiobook. Having the story read to me by the author made it all that more evocative. Pick up a copy of this thought-provoking and heartfelt story today at your favorite bookstore or request it from your local library.

Sharon M. Draper is the author of many books for children and young adults, a New York Times bestselling author, and the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award, honoring her significant contribution to writing for teens. She received the Coretta Scott King Award for both Copper Sun and Forged by Fire and was awarded the Charlotte Huck Award for Stella by Starlight. Out of My Mind has also won multiple awards and was a New York Times bestseller for over three years. Sharon lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years and was named National Teacher of the Year. Visit her website or connect with her on Twitter.