Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Cary, a black woman, recounts
her challenging years as student and teacher at an elite prep school. Author
tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library
Journal
YA-- A streetwise kid from West
Philly, Cary was the first African-American female to attend St. Paul's, a
prestigious New England prep school. With tremendous drive, she set out to
achieve self-imposed academic, athletic, and social goals. Although she
believed she owed it to the school that accepted her on scholarship, to her
family who encouraged and sacrificed, and to those who will come after, she
found that the price was great.Spotlight Reviews
One of those books that you want to read over and over again, July
30, 1999
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Reviewer: ylonon@eden.rutgers.edu
from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ |
I've read Black Ice at least 7 times in the past
2 years because with each reading I continue to understand how my
experiences at a predominantly white high school have shaped the person I
have become. I can not remember the exact phrasing, but there is one passage
in Black Ice that sums up how I feel about my high school experience. It
goes something like this: If I had left St. Paul's School the same person
who went there, there would have been no use in going. In other words,
accept that you will be changed when you live through the alienation and
self-inflicted loneliness of integrating schools in the Post-Jim Crow, Post
Civil Rights Movement era. I wish that I would have read this book while I
was still in high school. I would be able to better articulate to my friends
and family what I was experiencing.
I've been wondering if the title has anything to
do with the lake that Lorene visited in the story when she took the time to
think about her life one night. Or maybe it is a visual reference to her
heart, dark and cold because she, in her own words, had not loved enough
during her teen-age years. Perhaps, it is a reference to the black ice on
the roads that you have to watch out for in the winter...
in response to "it's one of the worst books i read this year, January
11, 2000
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Reviewer: A reader
from Massachusetts |
I too had to read this book for school. Once, in
the summer going into my freshman year, and again during my junior year. On
both occasions, I found that this was a delightful book. The word choices
are quite appropriate, and if the words are too big for your vocabulary,
then read with a dictionary. I thought that this was a poignant memoir about
the early days of integration. As a reader--amazingly, as a white reader--I
was very empathetic to the challenges that Ms. Cary overcame. If after all
you came away with after reading this book is that it was boring and
inconsequential, read it again. Reading for school may not be on the top of
my list for fun things to do, but if you forget you're doing homework and
yourself to enter the atmosphere of the book, then there is no way you
cannot enjoy it. Black Ice is a very powerful and moving book. In recounting
her own adolescence, Cary helps people in their teen years make sense of all
that is happening to them. She also allows others who have left those years,
to remember their own adolescence. There is much to be gained from reading
this book, and nothing to lose. I guess if you are a thoughtless person, who
does not want to know the history of this country, then this book is not for
you. But if you have a compassionate bone in your body, you will learn and
grow from this amazing book.
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