From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Written by Jacqueline Woodson

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Ages 12-16

Melanin is a teenager growing up in Brooklyn; he cares about how he looks, his friends, why the dodo can not fly and a girls number in his back pocket.  Things are changing for Melanin but he has always had a close relationship with his mother until the day he finds out she is in love with a woman, a white woman.  The news tears Melanin apart but he must learn to love his mother despite of or because of the decisions she makes. As his world fall apart he realizes family is the only thing that remains. 

     Reading this I felt like I knew what it was like to be a thirteen year old boy growing up in Brooklyn.  I could relate to that phone number written on a scrap of paper in a back pocket that was slowly deteriorating for fear of the unknown.  When Melanin learns of his mother's secret and and all of his love turns to violent, terrified, hatred I knew that it was the kind of hate that with silence, could stay with you forever.  Even though it dealt with sensitive subjects I did not feel like it was written to teach me a lesson or a "white story" with black face on it.  I felt like it was a true story, if only in that there must be many stories similar to Melanin's, that needed to be told.  Every element of the story felt genuine, it was amazing that not only was it written by a woman but it was her first attempt at writing as a male narrator.  I believed the dynamic between Mel and his friends, how vulnerable you are at that age and how quickly you can feel betrayed.  I could see, here and feel his neighborhood as much as a girl from Iowa could ever hope to through a story.  I could picture the boys "grabbing a slice" and cruising the block, people they new hanging from fire escapes, nosy neighbors, the solitary thud of a basketball on a rainy day. 

    I loved the complexity of Melanin's character and I feel like teenagers can relate to his extremes of ideals and emotions and the confusion when they do not fit easily into their world.  He wants to be seen as tough but he is soft and introspective.  He is wondering about girls and going through new sexual experiences but he is confused about sexuality and afraid of being labeled as something he is not.  He seems so open and understanding yet when he learns of his mother he is incapable of accepting her as she is.  He is trying to understand who he is.  There are these moments when we see Melanin far outside of himself in his reflections over natural mysteries and wonders or humans role in the tragic demise of the natural world but unable to use this to look inside himself.  One of the things that is so tangible about Melanin is is "aloneness".  His tendency to isolate himself from others because of his need to stop, reflect and question.  He writes in his notebooks "Some days I wear alone like a coat..." Through his writing Melanin is able to express himself and work through his thoughts in a way that he cannot with other people.

    This book is centered around very controversial subjects such as sexual identity and race.  However I know that there are many teenagers who could relate to this story if not directly to Mel's mother's sexual identity than to the feelings and changes he is going through.  I also think it could expand the minds of readers who may not have directly experienced many of these things and make them ask new if uncomfortable questions.  I would want to know that my students were mature enough to read this book and actually learn from it, not deny it and use it to build defenses.  At the same time I think it is important for people to ask themselves questions which confront their experiences and beliefs and really make them think in new ways.  I would need to bring a lot of support and opportunities for discussion and questions into the reading of this book.  I would not want issues that could raise negative feelings to go unaddressed and would not want anyone to feel like they were being alienated.  I would like to discuss the confrontations of ideology and public image we see in the story.  I would like to discuss the issues of race and sexuality and would bring in outside documents and information to aid and inform the conversations.  I would also want to discuss Melanin's feelings on a personal level, how could my students relate to what he is going through?  I would want to discuss the idea of  identity and I think it would be a great idea to start personal  journals so my students could experiment with reflection, introspection, expressing themselves and have a place to write about some of the difficult feelings that might result from our reading.