Color Me In is an exploration of identity and family through the eyes of a teen biracial girl who passes as white. Nevaeh is a biracial Jewish teen who is living with her mom's side of the family for the first time after her parents separate. Her black cousins point out that Nevaeh benefits from white privilege and can't relate to the daily racism they face. Nevaeh is trying to figure out how she fits into her mother's Jamaican family after spending more time with her father's white and Jewish family. Unlike her cousins, Nevaeh attends a private school and has had far more opportunities, and she's starting to recognize that.

This book tackles internalized racism, identity, and family politics. Nevaeh often feels stuck between the two identities her parents want her to have. Nevaeh struggles to release herself from the strict "black or white" labels that society wants to place on her. I loved that this book confronts the binary system and allows for the main character to express her identity in the way that she wants to.

This is also an exceptional title for teens who are dealing with parents that are currently separating. Nevaeh has to witness the entire messy uncoupling and she has a lot of emotions along the way. The author explores the expansion of family that can happen during a divorce.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

I don’t know where to start honestly. This book was... a lot to say the least.

It was a story packed full of harsh realities and brutal truths about life, especially about the lives of people of color.

The story follows Navaeh, a half Jewish and half black young woman who we follow in her journey of finding her voice and trying to learn what to do with it. She expresses her thoughts and emotions through writing and when she starts to express herself, her entire demeanor changes. And so does the story.

What was difficult for me was the characters; mostly the fact that I could not connect with them At. All. Most of them were literally the worst and reading about them gave me physical hives. Navaeh’s dad? Trash. Abby? Trash. Ashleigh? Trash. And half of the time, Navaeh was trash too. But I do like how realistic it was that when she finally stood up for herself, it was almost too much. As if finding her voice unbalanced her and she changed from a quiet, reserved girl to a selfish, attention seeking, and almost narcissistic person.

I loved the writing of this novel, as I am a sucker for different writing styles weaves into the story (in this case, free verse writing and poems) to add more to the novel as a whole. I felt every punch and kick of emotion behind every word of Natasha Diaz’s and I loved it. I think this by far was my favorite aspect of the story.

There is a lot of heaviness to this story though to the point where it was almost suffocating. But I kind of expected that seeing as this is a kind of autobiographical tale. Still, I felt emotionally exhausted after reading this.

Overall, a wonderful story and I would definitely recommend it to people! Especially, if you find yourself in Navaeh’s shoes of being lost in your own identity.

trigger warnings: intense bullying, racism, sexual harassment, racist assault

This is an OWNVOICES book, everyone!!!

I flew right through COLOR ME IN. I even forgot to eat at one point and I wondered why I felt so weak. This is a story mixed-race girl learning where she fits in. We navigate through two different cultures as our protagonist as she wanders through heartbreak and joy. This book pulled me into Naveah's world. We really see how she grows. This book is definitely going to change its readers. A great debut of 2019!!

It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I felt that some pieces of the novel were disconnected - the relationship between Neveah and Jesus could have been a little more fleshed out before the last few chapters, and I would have liked to know more about Rabbi Sarah - but I really got sucked into the story at the end. Neveah was at times a frustrating protagonist, but it did feel like a good encapsulation of a teenager. Overall, I would recommend this book. It's thoughtful and will make you think about how you fit in in your world.

If the #ownvoices literary movement needs a mascot to provide proof that these books are not only necessary but some of the best books readers will get their desperate hands on, I nominate this one for the running. With that authentic look at race found in the works of Angie Thomas and the poetic and powerful prose of Elizabeth Acevado, Color Me In is a novel that will capture readers hearts and minds instantly. As a child of a multicultural home myself (Puerto Rican and Jewish, which was pretty close to the main character's Jamaican and Jewish roots) I loved the opportunity to read a narrative that echoed a lot of the thoughts cycling through my own mind during high school.

I hope to see Natasha Diaz's name on many more YA novels to come.

Color me In was an important and well written book about a teenager who is biracial from both black and Jewish background, who “passes” as white. She has to deal with all the racial stereotyping that is done throughout her life but then her parents decide to divorce as well which adds another dimension to her turmoil.
I appreciated the various points of view that the author incorporated into the narrative to help enhance the story.

I would recommend this book.

#ColorMeIn NetGelley

COLOR ME IN review notes thing:

I was initially interested in Color me In for the Jewish rep and the themes of “where do I belong” and “am I enough to claim this” because those are things I’ve experienced, especially as I’ve tried to be closer to my own Jewish identity coming from a dual-faith household and having my Jewishness come from my dad (Jewish identity is usually traced matrilineally).

From the very first scene, this book is full of emotional gut punches and powerful, important observations. Nevaeh has trouble connecting to her Black identity because she has lighter skin, and growing up her mom kind of lost contact with most of her family when she married Nevaeh’s dad, so growing up in a predominantly white community and going to a predominately white school, she doesn’t feel comfortable claiming her Blackness in several ways. This isn’t a topic I feel is my place to speak on, as a white person, but I do wanna say the emotional labor her cousin and aunt gives to her to make her more aware of how being lighter skinned makes some things easier than it is for them really stands out to me. Nevaeh talks about never claiming Black as part of her identity until Hanukkah dinner with her dad and his new girlfriend when Ashleigh makes derisive and dismissive comments about a BLM rally blocking traffic, and Nevaeh reveals she’ll be preforming a poem at a rally against police brutality because she’s one of those Black kids.

Nevaeh’s parents are separated, apparently as a result of her father cheating, and her mother is depressed which makes it difficult for her to be there and parent her daughter. Her father suddenly decides that, instead of a sweet sixteen, Nevaeh should have a belated bat mitzvah in the hopes it’ll bring her closer to her Jewish identity, especially living with her Baptist minister grandfather.

Nevaeh finds her mother’s old journal and begins reading the entries in an attempt to better understand her, and that added layer to the storytelling really adds nuance to Corinne and the ghost of her we see currently. I really like and appreciate that when Corinne starts going to therapy, she tells Nevaeh it, though the way it came out wasn’t the best because Corinne wasn’t necessarily in control of the conversation. When Corinne is able to control the conversation, she explains she had planned to tell Nevaeh about the therapy after a few sessions and that it is helping her, and that kind of candidness is wonderful to see.

Sometimes I had trouble parsing the pacing of events, though that could be due to reading an advance copy.

In a lot of ways this is a story of Nevaeh making a mess and learning she isn’t the center of the universe and her problems aren’t the only ones. She has a tendency towards selfishness, but no more than is normal because at 15-16 it’s sometimes hard to remember your experiences aren’t the only ones happening.

I adore the friendship between Nevaeh and Stevie. There are some major bumps and big fights between them over the course of this book, but their friendship is so strong. I especially love a line where Nevaeh describes their love as being outside the confines of romance, but also being deeper than friendship. They have such a good bond, I’m so glad they find their way back to each other.

This book is very much a look at multiracial and multicultural upbringing and the ways it’s hard to define self but also recognize privilege when dealing with internal and external conflicts. Nevaeh is trying to define herself, and along the way she hurts and hurts those she cares about, but this is ultimately a story of her personal growth. Nevaeh learns better to listen and to give up space so others can speak and have their voices uplifted, which is hard at times when she is finally learning how to use her own voice.

This book was utterly phenomenal on so many levels and I can not recommend it enough.

A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
DNF at 41%. The writing was typical and bland, and the characters seemed 2D. Every character had their struggles, but everything was told rather than shown. It's like everything I read was a collection of thoughts and moments, but it didn't form a complete story. I still can't really gather a plot after completing nearly half the book. I eventually couldn't take it anymore and had to put this one down.

Nevaeh Levitz is a white-passing biracial girl in New York City, daughter of a Black woman who spends most of the book in a deep depression and a white Jewish man who caused it with his repeated infidelity. She’s ordered by the court to move between her father’s and her mom’s family’s house every few days, but no matter where she goes she doesn’t feel like she fits in. She’s afraid to claim her Blackness because she doesn’t experience the same hardships as visibly Black folks (like her cousin Jordan who repeatedly points that fact out of her own frustration, thinking she doesn’t get to be Black), afraid to claim her Jewishness because she wasn’t raised religious.

She feels like she doesn’t exist and finds peace in her poetry that she writes in the attic of her Pa’s house, where she also finds an old diary of her mom. The poems are scattered through the book -The Ogre being my favorite- and some chapters are entirely Corinne’s diary entries, including the one horrible incident that made my blood boil.

Auntie Anita continues the horrible practice of hitting kids but also damn near chains herself to the door when Jordan tries to go to a BLM rally, mirroring exactly what my mother did when I tried to go to Gezi Park (in her defense, I was 12.). Her husband Zeke once gets harassed by the police because they think him, a big Black guy, walking around with a “white” girl (Nevaeh) is sketchy. Their daughter Janae is bound for film school, Jordan is very much an activist and the youngest one Jerry loves food. Jordan has mistaken beliefs regarding colorism, but as a non-Black person I won’t get into them. Pa himself is a demanding respect type of guy, later finding love in an unlikely place. On the other side is Nevaeh’s dad, a lawyer with a manipulative mom who lives alone (until [REDACTED].) Through him Nevaeh meets Sarah, a converted Jewish rabbi who grows on her.


I loved Nevaeh’s development and finding of her voice against sometimes cartoonism hate, ending with a whole tribe holding her down—Jewish and Black.

Color Me In is a novel with Diaz's personal experiences as a biracial to construct Neveah's story. Neveah, who has so far lived in a white neighborhood, and being white-passing, has never had to fully acknowledge her biracial identity. Now, as she lives with her mother's family while her mother and her father sort out their divorce, she feels lost in the world, like she doesn't fit in. Now, when I started this book, I thought the story would be entirely about Neveah's troubles with fitting in (to be fair, a similar story in Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America was the basis of my assumption), but mid-way through the author shifts the story's focus from that to the question of 'okay, but what can she do with it?'

The first half is, yes, about the issues she faces - being considered black enough to discriminate, at her school, while too white for her new black neighborhood, and especially her cousin, who is hostile to her at the start. She isn't sure how much claim she has to her Jewish heritage, either, as her father has kept the family non-religious for the most part; now he wants her to have a bat mitzvah and everything. She has her insecurities, and struggles with making the right decisions, often, thinking it her lane or thinking it is not her lane; she sees more the overt racial discrimination that her family faces, or her boyfriend faces. I felt like by the end, it was about how she could use her privilege as a white-passing person to be a better ally, rather than wallow in her insecurities.

While Neveah's personal exploration of how she sees her identity is a well-done plot, I felt there were many minor subplots that weren't exactly given their due. Neveah's relationship with her mother was barely touched upon, considering she is kind of reading the latter's diary secretly - she barely interacts with her mother, even until the end. Another relationship that was half-formed was that with her best friend, whose presence only served to introduce drama at appropriate intervals? I didn't get half the time what their fights were about, to be honest. Jordan's and Neveah's relationship seemed more fleshed out than that friendship, and this is saying something, since half of their interactions are hostile. There was that subplot about the school bully (who said some pretty horrible racial things, by the way) and her father's new girlfriend (who is framed as the temptress who lures her father away) - both characters were cliched cardboard characters.

Finally, I think there were some things the book did well - like Neveah's journey through herself, finding a way to reconcile both parts of her identity in herself, working through her issues with her parents - but some parts - minor storylines that seemed to only add tension or distract - were meh.

Honestly starting the book it took me awhile to fully immerse myself into the story. I did enjoy how Naveah learned about both sides of her and how she learned how her complexion affects the people around her. An example of this is when her nememis at her school tries to cyber-bully her and pick a fight outside of their school and Naveah's boyfriend ends up getting harassed by the security guard because he thought that he did something to the girls.

This review is all over the place but like I said i liked how Naveah learned both sides of her race. How she was able to connect more with her family, fall in love and just become a all around new person. This is an own voices book so that is a plus. Another thing i liked is how Naveah wrote poetry. Sprinkled throughout the story Naveah would randomly come up with a poem based on whats going on around her and I really enjoyed that aspect. I love how confident she became towards the end of the story whereas at the beginning she was meek and didn't really speak up for herself.

I loved this story so much. I loved learning about each of the characters and seeing how they developed throughout the course of this book. I adored the diversity in this novel and how this book discussed racism and and religious intolerance in a way that played at the heart and made you feel for the characters

Nevaeh lives a double life. In the wake of her parents’ abrupt separation, she’s splitting time between her white, Jewish, dad, in the affluent neighborhood Nevaeh used to call home, and her mom’s Black, Baptist family in Harlem. Her mom has been a shell of herself ever since the family’s split, while her dad has already moved on. Nevaeh feels simultaneously insufficient on either side of her identity— not Black enough, but not white or Jewish enough, either. She feels like she’ll never fit in anywhere.

In an effort to reconnect her with her Jewish heritage, her dad schedules her a late bat mitzvah; at about the same time, her cousins and her school’s Black Student Union encourage her to participate in a poetry reading for Black Lives Matter awareness. Nevaeh launches herself into both activities, but she still can’t seem to figure out where she fits in it all. Then, as her sessions with the rabbi her dad has hired begin to hold genuine cultural significance for her, she realizes that maybe, a fusion of her worlds is the key to understanding herself as wholly Nevaeh Levitz.

The prose is woven with alternate mediums such as her mom’s journal entries and her own poetry in order to thoroughly tell Nevaeh’s story. And oh, gosh, the poetry. At the beginning, Nevaeh is adamant about keeping the fact that she’s a writer a secret— but as her sense of identity solidifies, so does her confidence in her words. Díaz’s poetry is equally as powerful as her prose, and it was the cherry on top of an already-compelling writer voice.

Nevaeh’s characterization took the cake. This is truly a coming-of-age story— and though she starts it out in the dark and lost, there’s so much that Nevaeh learns. From her rabbi mentor’s Hebrew lessons to self-confidence and expression through poetry to her cousins’ insistence that she speak up in the presence of injustice— she is enriched and empowered by multiple environments. The culmination of the narrative adds so much power and unapologetic individuality to this fact.

Everything about this novel is richly diverse and intricately crafted. I can’t wait until it hits shelves— we need more portraits of identity like this one. Thank you to Natasha Díaz for sharing such a deeply personal and moving story.

Color Me In by Natasha Diaz follows 16 year-old year old Nevaeh Levitz, who is spending her time between her White Jewish dad and her Black Baptist mom, Naveah is having a difficult time dealing with her parents separation and embracing the two parts of her world that makes her whole.

From my personal experience I’ve seen biracial kids struggle with identity and if it’s not addressed at early age it really can become overwhelming.

Because of her skin completion Nevaeh can easily pass for White, and when her cousin Jordan experiences a run in with authority, Nevaeh recognizes how much privilege she has and in turn uses that to fight for the ones she loves. Now this would be a YA without some romance.

Nevaeh falls for a Dominican boy named Jesus and the love they have for each other is really cute. This YA really wow’d me. Its thought-provoking, Inspiring and the writing is very poetic. I read this in one day. What an amazing debut and I can’t wait to see what more the author has in the future.

Thank you, Netgally & Delacorte Publishing, for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rate: 4 out of 5 Stars

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley for a fair and honest review. Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book early, I just loved it. The poetry and descriptive language is exemplary. Nevaeh is a relatable character and the representation is sorely needed and valued by me, as a Jewish reader. Nevaeh is a 15 year old biracial Jewish New York girl whose parents have separated. She is stuck in the middle between her Jewish father who never forced religion but more the cultural belonging to Jewish culture; and her light skinned mom whose return to her family after estrangement has brought Nevaeh into the folds of her family's Baptist church coming. Nevaeh is so light skinned, with freckles and "down" hair that she "passes" for white quite a lot. The paradox being she's too light in the Black community and not quite white for the snobs at her private school. Examples of people's bias are provided. Things happen to cause her to open her eyes and her courage to share her beautiful thoughtful poetry.

We also get a glimpse into her mother Corinne's diary and how she met Nevaeh's father Samuel. There's a sharp contrast between that recollection and later when her dad had moved on with someone else, as her Bubby puts it, another shiksa. Having Nevaeh study to be a Bat Mitzvah at 15, older than the other students at shul, with Rabbi Sarah who is another multi faceted character. Character development is done quite well for this author and the story moves along at a good pace. Some of the things that happen with her ex best friend who tricks her on her birthday had me a little shocked at how far things got out of control, and how she denounced her father at the end, after giving up trying to keep a good relationship with his daughter... i would have liked to see them make up. The way her Bat Mitzvah was done to blend her 2 cultures was beautiful. I would absolutely recommend this book when it comes out!!

Nevaeh is caught between two worlds. Her parents have separated and so not only does she have to deal with that trauma but they are apart of two different cultures and so Nevaeh feels like she is not enough of one or the other to lay claim to those identities and speak for them. And not only that but she has to grapple with the privileges afforded to her because of her proximity to the dominant culture.

I think this book will resonate with teens going through a similar situation. It was interesting the way her parents separation was presented. No information was given to Nevaeh. She just had to deal with the aftermath. That’s how some kids of divorced/separated parents feel. They are just expected to deal with it with no explanation or time to process their feelings.

I was so thankful Nevaeh had her Auntie Anita because my adult brain kept screaming “Why is no one talking to Nevaeh about what it going on?” We all have that one Auntie in our family that at first may seem a bit mean but in the end she had our back all along. When she gave Nevaeh the auntie speech, I felt that in my soul.

One of the hidden gems in this novel is the poetry. I loved it every single time it popped up. It was like a little surprise on the page. Reminded me of my teen self when I used to spend hours in the field adjacent to our neighborhood writing poetry to deal with my feelings about the things going on in my life. It just may be my favorite part of the book.

Bold. Poignant. Inspiring. A love letter to those who may be need to hear that it’s okay to be their authentic self. That it’s okay to be a part of more than one world. You can choose both.


P.S. And since I’m a potterhead I appreciated all the Harry Potter references.

Color Me In is a powerful and striking debut from Natasha Diaz. For anyone who's felt torn between parts of our identity or unsure what we can call our own, Color Me In is for you. Color Me In is one of those books that draws you in. It demands to be read. Diaz presents an emotional and heart wrenching story about wondering our place in the world and our family. It presents a marriage and family in conflict. Those unsaid moments of family taboos, closed off questions, awkward silence, and things best left unsaid, or not. Color Me In perfectly develops and explores that feeling of being pulled in different directions when we don't know what we can claim as our own. What parts of our identity can we express?

s someone who grew up adopted in a family that never looked like me, and a setting where very few people looked like me - or had similar experiences, I could deeply identify with Nevaeh's feelings of being pulled in different directions. The dissonance between the home we grew up in and our sense of home. Color Me In is a multi-faceted story that delivers on multiple layers - Nevaeh's own personal journey with her identity and friends, the unfolding of the relationship between Nevaeh's parents, and her own growing relationship to her family.

Color Me In follows the story of a teenager named Nevaeh who is reeling from her parents divorce. She spends her time between her dad and her mom’s house and is struggling with the separation. On top of that, she is also questioning her identity as Naveah is half Jewish and half black. She doesn’t know where the to fit in and she doesn’t just want to claim one part of her ethnicity.

Being that she is light-skinned means she’s often mistaken for a white person which makes her feel disconnected from her own ethnicity. Nevaeh is constantly working on a journey of self discovery to find out who she really is. At her Aunt Anita’s house she feels like she doesn’t fit in with her mom’s side of family and it doesn’t help that her cousins bully her about the way she looks and how she acts “white”. While her father wants her to be more connected to the Jewish heritage and culture. She always feels like a fish out of water.

Neveah is also pulled in different directions when it comes to religion. Her mother is Christian and her dad is Jewish. When is comes to living under their households its a constant strain of pressure to live under their lifestyle that they place upon her. Neveah struggles to make a path for herself of her own choosing. She doesn’t fit in at school as it is not diverse and feels excluded from people of her own race. I could feel Naveah’s pain and her raw emotions as she tries to move forward in her life and find some kind of clarity.

This book discusses a variety of topics such as: racism, the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification, being biracial, mental illness, religion, and more. It may seem like a lot to tackle in one novel,but Diaz executes these topics well into the story as it is based off her own experiences about having a biracial and multiracial identity. Her writing has lyrical quality and she has this ability to bring her readers into the story by making it real and emotional.

Diaz has woven a intricate narrative throughout this book. I love how deep the poems are laced within the book since Naveah is a writer. My favorite part about this book was the characters. Not only are they diverse but they are so in depth too. Though Nevaeh’s family and friends stood didn’t see eye to eye all the time, when it comes to it they are to support each other. Nevaeh’s journey in this book is heartfelt and sometimes painful with the ups and downs of growing up. Through the many obstacles she faces she learns to grow, find herself, forgive her parents, and to move on towards the future. She learns how to use her voice to speak up for what she believes in.

*Trigger Warning: Racism, Bullying, Some Violence

The writing in this book is quite beautiful. Almost so much so that it didn’t feel like a teenager’s voice? But I did enjoy it.

This book definitely taps into important issues and discussions, and I’m excited to see how a broader community reacts to this book.

the fact that this book was inspired by the authors real life was just so fascinating. this book was very intriguing and i honestly learned a lot.

Color Me In focuses on Nevaeh, a 16 year old biracial, jewish girl that's just trying to find herself. this book covered racism and the way it still affects the world. it was good that nevaeh eventually learned to speak up and use her privilege to help her family and friends.

i absolutely loved everything about this book.