Sharon Draper's Blended is a powerful book about race, growing up in divorced households, navigating middle school, crushes, and hate. She writes from the point of view of 11 year old Izzy, who is shuffled between two parents' households, spending one week at each and dealing with less than amicable parental exchanges at the mall. Throughout all of this there are tremors of racism that pop up at school and in the community, making the world a scarier place for Izzy, who is a blend between her white mother and black father. Draper does a beautiful job of writing from her perspective and making you feel her confusion, fright, anger, and ultimately, pain. A must have for any middle school library; also an excellent book read for discussing racism and the culture it breeds.

At first I was excited to read this book, as I am a big fan of Sharon M. Draper’s past bestsellers: Tears of a Tiger, Forged by Fire, Out of My Mind, etc. But Blended turned out to be a big disappointment.

There was just too much crammed into a book that just meandered along. There was unexplained drama between Izzy’s parents - why do they hate each other, exactly? - that made the whole divorced parents angst thing seem ungrounded. Then there was Izzy herself, whose voice was not fully realized in Ms. Draper’s words. The writing was not consistently authentic for an 11-year-old, as many times, Izzy’s “voice” seemed to juvenile in today’s media-saturated world. And all of the inner dialogue exclamation points were grating!

I usually love Ms. Draper’s writing, but this one had way too many obvious metaphors; of course Izzy loves ice cream sandwiches, with their chocolate wafers and vanilla insides. As a biracial person myself, I found it all just too obvious. Just…no.

I’m sure there will be readers who will truly enjoy this book. It just didn’t do it for me.

I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interest Level: 3-6

Do you ever feel like you don't belong? Are you torn between two divorced parents? This is eleven-year-old Isabella. She is struggling with living one week with her dad, his girlfriend, and her son in a very fancy neighborhood and the next week with her mom and her boyfriend in the average house that she grew up in. It is a constant weekly struggle between these two parents who fight over her all the time. The other issue Isabella faces is that her mom is white and her dad is black and she doesn't know where she fits in there either. She loves both of her parents but she hates exchange day Sunday when her parents are less than nice to each other and she hates waking up each Monday in a different bed. She loves her dad, his girlfriend, Anastasia, and her son, Darren. Anastasia loves Isabella and Darren, even though he is a teenager, dotes on her all the time. She loves her mom's house and John Mark, her mom's boyfriend treats her like she is his own child. Isabella just wishes that they could all get along. When something racial happens at her school involving Isabella's best friend the tension in her life just grows and grows. Thank goodness for Isabella's music. She loves to play the piano and she is working so hard for her upcoming concert, Isabella just hopes her families can come together and be nice for just one day. That doesn't seem likely when both of her parents get engaged and decide to get married on the same day. The fighting only intensives and Isabella is at her wits end. On the day of her concert Darren takes her to go get ice cream on the way. No one can predict what happens when there is a robbery at the bank next to the ice cream shop and Darren is pulled over. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun and shots are fired. What will happen to Isabella's family when tragedy strikes? This is story that you can not miss!!

Sharon Draper knocks another one out of the park, not just the park but out of this world, with her newest book. From page one you get wrapped up in Isabella's life and she doesn't let go. You feel her pain, her sorrow, her love and you just want to go give her a huge hug. This book talks about so many issues that are facing so many children today - divorce, mixed families, racial issues, and police issues. Loved this story!!

Isabella spends one week with her dad and his girlfriend, the next week with her mom and her boyfriend. She hates it. She really hates exchange day when she switches. She feels like nowhere is home, she’s always visiting. And her parents, one who is white and one who is black, don’t get along. Tensions between the families get worse when both parents decide to remarry — on the same date. Add to this troubling race issues like the noose in her friend’s locker or when she and her stepbrother are pulled over because of he’s black and in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sharon Draper writes a story that captures Isabella’s feelings of division as she searches for who she is in her own story.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book. This is the first book I have read by Sharon Draper and I look forward to reading more. After teaching middle school for 18 years I found the story and main character easy to relate to and believable. Isabella's parents are divorced and she goes back and forth between the two on a weekly basis. Isabella is biracial with her dad being African American and her mom being Caucasian. The book did a good job of addressing issues surrounding divorce, being biracial, prejudice, police profiling and police brutality. This book would be a great addition to any middle school or YA library.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. Having been around middle schoolers for about forty years of teaching, I think one of the strengths of this book is that Draper really caught some of the thought processes of a sixth grade girl. There were a few loose ends left-- no further mention of Logan, and the book ends before some anticipated big events can happen. Some stereotypes are rightfully smashed, some are reinforced. I could see this having a sequel.

The child of a divorced white mother and black father, Isabella dislikes her weekly move from one home to the other. She is also coming into a clearer understanding of the societal implications of her racial make-up. Both parents plan to remarry during the course of the book, further complicating Isabella's life. The most compelling portion of the plot occurs when her parents' quarreling induces her to run away. The resultant parental distress causes the adults to reassess their own immature behavior.

Isabella's concerns about identity and her place in the world will resonate with many readers.

Had to answer “no” to all questions: the download is not recognizable on any of my devices so I can’t read it.

Sharon Draper is a beloved author & this is another one that definitely needs to be added to library collections. After I started reading this story, I found it hard to pull myself away. At times I just wanted to give Isabella a big hug. I am glad she had good friends in the story to help her deal with her family mess. Through she struggles throughout, she learned some valuable lessons both about herself and the world around her.
A good recommendation for youngers who are interested in The Hate You Give.

There are kids who NEED this book. Kids with the same questions, insecurities, and struggles as Isabella. Draper presents an authentic character and very real, very terrible events. I especially recommend it for kids who want to read “The Hate U Give” but aren’t quite ready yet.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

After I started reading this story, I could not put it down! At times I just wanted to give the main character a big hug. I am glad she had good friends in the story to help her deal with her family mess. Throughout her struggles, she learned some valuable lessons both about herself and the world around her.

Sharon Draper continues to do a great job writing about tough subjects in a way that will appeal to middle graders. Blended attempts to cover a lot of ground: divorce and blended families, bullying, racial prejudice, and even violence. Ultimately it was too much for one short book. The reader is left without any closure, and events that occur in the last few chapters are not given enough time to flesh out. Still, middle grade readers will like this book.

Sharon Draper continues to prove herself as one of the best middle grade writers of the age. Blended perfectly captures middle school growing pains as well as many of the large societal issues tweens are tackling on a daily basis. Divorce and ensuing custody issues, children's right to choose, racial profiling, bullying, police brutality, intersectionality, budding romance--it's all here. Izzy is a heroine for EVERYONE.

Isabella’s parents are divorced, and not very amicably either. Izzy splits her time with her mom and dad-one week at a time with exchange day exactly at 3 pm on Sundays. What her parents don’t see is how their fighting affects Isabella. Isabella has many friends and blends her time with each parent quite smoothly. When an incident at school brings up the hot topic of race relations, Isabella begins to wonder about her own mixed race. Is she black or white or both? She has never thought about it befor. She simply was. She experiences numerous racial slights after the school incident- some unintentional but realizes they all hurt. The story is superbly told- bringing out the many issues issues succinctly yet with emotion. Readers feel Izzy’s pain and anger over her parents animosity and confusion and anger over escalting race relations. An excellent story for todays difficult world.

Sharon Draper is a master storyteller and this book is no different. Fabulous book that needs to be in every library for middle grade students.

Sharon M. Draper has once again created a beautifully real and compelling work of art. Blended hits a lot of tough topics children and teens are going through today, such as divorce, custody battles, school threats, racial profiling, and police brutality. In the beginning, 11-year-old Isabella seemed to not have a lot of body and self-confidence. Being that she has a white mother and a black father, she doesn’t seem to know what she categorizes herself. When she has to fill out forms that ask her race, she doesn’t know which box to check. But as time wears on, even though the situation with her parents and the issues going on at school get intense, her sense of self begins to get stronger as she learns from these experiences and she becomes more proud of who she is. This confidence also grows when she figures out how to handle tougher situations, such as racial profiling. She learns how not only to respond to these issues, but to educate those who thought they were complimenting her but were actually being offensive.

Of course the one thing Isabella can always call her own throughout the book is her love for the piano. While all the chaos is going on around her, she can always tune into herself through her piano as she practices for her recital. The recital piece that Isabella is practicing is Muzio Clementi’s Sonatina in C major, op. 36 no. 1. Naturally, I had to look up this piece and listen to it. It definitely gave me a sense of just how talented Isabella is and how much she takes it seriously. She even mentions how she wants to be a professional pianist when she grows up.

One of the things that stood out for me during this book was the use of interesting vocabulary words that are fitting for the middle school readers. Isabella’s teacher would give the class these vocab words to study in school, but you also see Isabella using them throughout the book and explaining what they mean. I found this to be a very valuable addition to the book, however small it seemed. As a librarian who runs summer reading programs and tries to encourage young readers to challenge themselves with their reading, having books that give the meanings to larger vocabulary words through the main character is an excellent way to teach those young readers without them needing to take the extra steps to figure out what they mean.

Overall, I thought this book covered a lot of ground. Between the tough issues, the characters internal battles, and finding her voice, this book has something everyone can learn from as they journey with Isabella. This book is a great read for tweens and young teens.