HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW
Book: I’m Mixed!
Author: Maggy Williams
Illustrator: Elizabeth Hasegawa Agresta
Publisher: : Loving Healing Press, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1615993604 Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1615993606 Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1615993598 Paperback
ISBN-10: 1615993592 Paperback
Related website(s): http://www.LHPress.com (publisher)
Language level: 1
(1=nothing objectionable; 2=common euphemisms and/or childish slang terms; 3=some cursing and/or profanity; 4=a lot of cursing and/or profanity; 5=obscenity and/or vulgarity)
Recommended reading level: Ages 4 – 8
Rating: ***** 5 stars
(5 stars=EXCELLENT; 4 stars=GOOD; 3 stars=FAIR; 2 stars=POOR; 1 star=VERY POOR; no stars=NOT RECOMMENDED)
Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker
Disclosure: Many publishers, literary agents, and/or authors provide free copies of their books in exchange for an honest review without requiring a positive opinion. Any books donated to Home School Book Review for review purposes are in turn donated to a library. No other compensation has been received for the reviews posted on Home School Book Review.
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Williams, Maggy. I’m Mixed! (Published in 2018 by Loving Healing Press, 5145 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105). The narrator of this story is a young girl who won’t say that she’s just black because that might make her mom feel bad, but she also won’t say that she’s just white because that would leave out her dad. Her mom is white, and her dad is black, so with her honey colored skin she says, “I’m mixed!” She is comfortable with who she is, even to the shape of her nose, but how do others react? Will they accept her? Or will they be all “mixed up”? My wife and I are of white European extraction, but both of our sons, now grown, are adopted. One has some Filipino ancestry with slightly darker skin and jet black hair, while the other has some Japanese in his background giving him somewhat almond shaped eyes. So we had to deal with some of these very issues when they were younger.
Author Maggy Williams, who started writing at five years old and hasn’t stopped since, grew up as a biracial child with a black father and a white mother. Thus, she writes from personal experience. She says that she chose to embrace her multiracial heritage because she was taught that she could, and that her hope for this book is help children to realize that it is possible to integrate their multiple racial identities. The captivating illustrations by Elizabeth Hasegawa Agresta are great, showing a blended race family with the white mother, the black father, and the mixed child. And the rhyming text will remind all children that they are to be appreciated and accepted for who and what they are. I’m Mixed! is a great starting point for a conversation about self-awareness, diversity, and inclusion.
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