The Two Levels

This was a pretty cool book. The perspective of a 7 year old is very refreshing.

Very good, I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

The Two Levels by Jonathan R. Miller kept me turning pages late into the night. The story is told from the point of view of Jasmine, a seven-year-old who was returning home from a vacation to South Africa with her parents. Because the reader only sees things through Jasmine's eyes, I never had all of the details. There was trouble with the plane which forced it to land at an airport in Sierra Leone. Sick people forced their way onto the plane and, after it landed in the United States, forced their way out of quarantine and fled, seeking refuge in a shopping mall. Jasmine's mother has been shot and is relying on Jasmine to take care of them both. But those details aren't important. What matters is that the passengers of the plane have taken refuge on the second floor and the employees of the mall have barricaded themselves on the first floor. Jasmine belongs to neither group and is doing her best to survive by shuttling between them. The adults who do offer to help Jasmine and her mother want something in exchange. Emmanuel wants her to gather jewelry and electronics that he can sell after it's over. Christiana won't tell Jasmine what she wants. Not yet. The book reminded me of Not a Drop to Drink, another book that shows a mother through a child's eyes. Or maybe Room.

Lovely, really, even if at times I was exasperated with Jasmin's rambling.

How do children manage racism? When you tell a child "you are not one of us," do they have any idea what you mean? Jasmin is half black and half white.

I enjoyed seeing the way we take sides with people of our own color through Jasmin's eyes. I could feel her hesitations and not being sure of what to do, who to trust in the situation she was.

Lovely voice and portray of a seven-year old.

As you know from the summary, Jasmin and her parents were coming back from Africa when in the airport was discovered that an African sick passanger (with what I later assumed was Ebola) made it to the US.

So all hell break lose and people start running and police shooting. Jasmin and her mom ended up sheltered in a mall. The problem was that the first floor of the mall was occupied by white people and the second floor by blacks. So the mall was quarentined because they could not let contaminated people out.

It is in this mall that Jasmin goes back and forth between the first and second floor and comes to face what it means being half white and half black.

I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Jasmine and her her parents are heading home from their trip to South Africa, they never expect to have to make a pit stop in Sierra Leone. After the unexpected delay, they finally board their flight with some new passengers, and head home to the United States. As they wait to pass through customs chaos breaks out and the passengers head on a wild chase through the airport, across the tarmac, and to a shopping mall across the street. Separated from her father, Jasmine and her mother look for safety within the walls of the mall.

The Two Levels is an interesting story that touches on many sensitive issues, all told through the point of view of 7 year old Jasmine. Though the story itself kept me engaged, I can't decide whether writing through Jasmine's eyes felt like the right choice to me. At times I grew quite annoyed with her character in how whiny she could be, and while I suppose it worked to add in more tension to the situation, and it wasn't out of character for a seven year old, it was just hard for me to read. I also felt conflicted when their were times when she could not seemingly grasp simple concepts, yet other times she had words or ideas she voiced that seemed out of her education level. It just felt a little inconsistent at times.

"'White, light-skin, high-yellow, whatever word you use. Call yourself how you want in your mind. But when the world see you on the news screen, they see you white. And that's what we need them to see on the second level right now. White.'
'But why?'
Mr.Emmanuel shrugs. 'Because then they understand that humans are involved.'"

The Two Levels brings light to a lot of heavier issues, the biggest one being race. While Jasmine is biracial, her skin color is, for the most part, lighter toned. While the predominantly white group of people on the first floor see her as being darker skinned, the Africans on the second floor see her as being white. Not only does this get you thinking about the racial issues in our current society, but it also creates a conflict where Jasmine does not fit in anywhere in this world where her mother is encouraging to embrace her African roots.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was the ending. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed. It felt like things were left too wide open, and there wasn't really any closure. I felt like the story could've used a couple more chapters, and actually looking at some of the other reviews I see I am not alone on this. There wasn't really a resolution or explanation for anything and I felt like I was waiting for answers through the whole story, so I was expecting them at the end.

Overall, the story isn't bad. It was certainly something that was different to me and unlike other stories I've read in the past. So that was refreshing. While I don't feel that it's something I'd ever re-read, I certainly don't feel disappointed in my choice to pick it up!

*This review has been posted to my review blog, goodreads, and facebook.*

It is always an ambitious choice to write a novel from a child’s point of view. In this case, parts were very successful, while others did not work. Seven year old Jasmine continually fluctuated from childlike innocence to an adult understanding of the world around her – some of this knowledge could come from the serious situation she finds herself in, but the inconsistencies took me out of the story and made Jasmine less believable.

Jasmine and her parents are returning from a trip to South Africa, in which they make an unexpected layover in Sierra Leone. Upon their return to the United States, chaos breaks out in the airport because some of the African passengers are showing signs of illness – a topical reference to the Ebola crisis. Jasmin and her African-American mother get caught up in the ensuing madness, and end up locked in the upper level of a shopping mall with the African passengers. Meanwhile, downstairs, a predominately white mall workers retreat (is this a thing?) is taking place. Jasmine, being biracial, is caught in the middle, venturing downstairs to find medical aid for her mother. Neither group truly accepts her, although they both use her to get what they want from the outside authorities.

The novel is an interesting, albeit obvious, examination of race issues, mainly illustrated by Jasmine’s being ostracized from both levels. She begins to question her own identity, as she is shut out from the African community for being too white, and kicked out of the worker’s retreat for being part of the group carrying illness. This is when a child’s voice comes in handy – to clearly show the inequality in racial relations without becoming preachy. Without an adult worldview, Jasmine cannot understand why everyone wouldn’t be treated equally when it came to medical care, etc. – the author uses her naivety to show us this unnecessary racial divide.

I really liked the concept of The Two Levels, although sometimes the allegory was pushed too hard. I also thought the setting was overly complicated – why did the passengers rush into the mall, and what are the chances there would be a group of mall workers spending the night there too? It would have been much simpler to have the whole scene take place in the airport where it began. It seemed like unnecessary drama and it didn’t ring true for me.

The ending of the novel was somewhat ambiguous, and not in a good way. Instead of leaving the reader to wonder about the endless possibilities of what could happen next, it just ended suddenly with no hints to the future. I would have loved to read more about the aftermath of the quarantine, perhaps with Jasmine reflecting back as an adult on these events. Hearing her voice at an older age would have strengthened her perspective as a child. Other than these issues, I thought it was a great concept with many current sociopolitical applications.

I received this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told from the point of view of a seven year old child. It addresses so many social issues, through the eyes of a child. Doing this really stripped down all the issues to the core- why can't we just help those in need regardless of race, religion, etc? Why can't we listen to others, really listen? Reading the thoughts of a child as she watches the way adults interact with each other and lie to her to get what they want puts things in perspective. A six year old child can see where society is going wrong, what is right, and give lessons on social justice. She does it in this book. This was one of the best books I've read in a long time, however I did not like the end. I was surprised when I reached the last word, I was expecting more.
I will be looking for other books by this author, I love his writing style.