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The Edification of Sonya Crane
When Sonya Crane transferred to predominantly black Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School (PLD) in Atlanta, she hadn't planned on passing as biracial. But being one of only a few white students in the school, she finds that hiding her identity makes it easier for her to fit in and gives her the kind of recognition and clique of friends she never had before. That is, until someone threatens to reveal her secret.
For Tandy Herman, the most popular girl at PLD, fitting in was never a problem. She hides her good grades, rock-music tastes and upper middle-class black status by maintaining a ghetto girl facade. But when Sonya finds out, she threatens to reveal Tandy's secret even though it may expose her own.
For Tandy Herman, the most popular girl at PLD, fitting in was never a problem. She hides her good grades, rock-music tastes and upper middle-class black status by maintaining a ghetto girl facade. But when Sonya finds out, she threatens to reveal Tandy's secret even though it may expose her own.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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April 18, 2018
The Edification Of Sonya Crane
PLOT: Sonya Crane, is the daughter of a struggling real estate agent and drug addict. She longs to escape her reality just for a little while and step in the world on three street girls she sees on the bus. Later on, she gets her chance when she's transferred to an all-black school in East Atlanta. Here she can easily slide into the façade of being "mixed" (biracial) and the students accept her without question because no white person would even dream of coming to their school. As time goes by Sonya becomes more and more popular and bonds with the leader of the street girls who has a secret of her own. But as Sonya gets deeper and deeper into that world she starts to lose herself in the process. While her actual reality (at home) gets worse and worse. Until it all comes unraveled.
MY THOUGHTS:
It took me a LONG time to get a copy of this. It's been sitting on my wishlist for ages because I was a big fan of the Kimani TRU series! When I first started to read about Sonya, her vulgar, disrespectful, manner put me off to the character. But then as I read further I begin to feel sorry for her and her situation. The book centers around I guess what's supposed to get a reaction out of (I'm assuming) the African American (black) reader because here's another white person (SONYA) hiding behind our ways and culture. But it didn't at first because honestly what else is new? Whites have been imitating our dances, styles, and features for YEARS! And I guess I'm just not one of those blacks that are quick to historically go back through time and start spouting off who did what when how and where in angry fits of passionate arguing. Not my style. So no Sonya fronting like she was black didn't get a rise out of me (at first). That is until she started to "wig". I think it was ok when she was just hanging with us until she turned into one of us and forgot she wasn't. Even though if Sonya's picture on the cover is a true representation of what the author had in her head for the character she DOES NOT LOOK EVEN REMOTELY MIXED! PERIOD! I don't see an ounce of black about this girl. And I found it amusing that the black girl she chooses to imitate (TANDY) when she finds out she doesn't get high, drunk, and sleep around she feels disappointed by. First I've heard of a white wanting the negative traits of being black. Also amusing to me that as much as you hear that blacks are ashamed of the color of their skin, Sonya can also be accused of being ashamed that she's white. First I've heard of that also. Then we get to the BS in the book. Sonya is all into her fronting now and goes on this spill to Kush about maybe it's not about whites perpetrating being black. Maybe it's about them "wanting to belong". BULL SHIT! Whites may "borrow" from us (coughs steal) BUT deep down they do not want to "belong" to us. You can't make me believe that. I don't think you'll find one that wakes up in the morning and says "I'm tired of being white today. I think I wanna be black." YEAH, we'll see how long that last when they have to go through what we do. Nor can you make me believe what Sonya says about her old school not just getting more because they were white. It was because they had more money. And WHY did they get more money? Because they're WHITE! Maybe Sonya's the one that needs to get checked on her FACTS! Because she spouts a bunch of stuff she obviously doesn't know anything about and got from her 5 minutes of being black. And now I am getting a reaction I didn't initially have because a white person should NOT have the audacity to speak with authority on matters that are beyond their limited understanding about being black. A white person will NEVER be black. And can we talk about this speech Sonya gives as a "half black" person? The message is beautiful and basically broken down tells us not to be ashamed of our features and to have pride in ourselves as black women but (again) SHE ISNT BLACK! She envies us. Again nothing new there. But the first time she feels as if she's accepted (secretly as a non-black) is with blacks. Which is kind of messed up. Well, I guess though to some degree to us (blacks) it speaks highly of our acceptance. Even unknowingly and under a lie, we took in a person, not of color and made her one of "us". Tho yes we assumed she already was. And easily I might add. Then we have the black girl's deceptions. I guess there had to be an equal thing going on. One of the main characters that's black (TANDY) is ashamed that she's smart. Honestly this part I didn't get. Maybe because I grew up in a middle-class environment and I'm not a hood chick or a rich chick. I can get why Tandy didn't wanna make it known she had money because you hear all the time about rich people not knowing "is it me she/he wants or is it the fame (money)". Quoting an old NE song. But to downplay herself because she's intelligent is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If your friends can't accept that that's who you are then they aren't really that great of a friend. And then there's this stigma that nerdiness is an uncool thing. And its a common trap in high school. I wish this wasn't true but it IS a real thing. I'm a book nerd and I take pride in my nerdiness. Nerdy people are probably the ones that make the world go round. If there weren't we wouldn't have all the technological, medical, and other advances things we can't live without in the world these days. All created by NERDS! Tandy's secret is exposed about being rich but not about being smart and just like her friends accepted that they'd probably accept the other thing. Then there was a dark skin female (MICHELLE)that was teased and called "darkie" and was ashamed of the color of her eyes? HUNH? I think they were brown and she had gray contacts in. I didn't get this either. People use colored contacts. Probably all the time. Ok. But why is that a big deal that should be kept so hush hush. Maybe the year this book was written it was, but in the year I'm reading it just strikes me as out there that here's this girl crying her eyes out in the bathroom because one of her eyes is a different color. I thought at first she had two different colored eyes. Did she lose the other contact lens? I also felt like (KUSH) was another character who was confused about who he was. First of all isn't Kush slang for weed? Kush's organization is supposed to be a play on The Black Panthers, but in this he comes across as someone that's a perpetrator. He tries to walk the walk and talk the talk but when he gets up to give a speech about his organization he starts going off tangent and talking about aliens and a white person (pretending to be black) has to check him on facts and not being taken serious. I can't say that they're fight was just for show but then can somebody tell me what they're "black power movement" was really fighting for. Equality? There whole movement and going against "the man" went right over my head. Kush came off to me a gray character that had wrapped himself in a cloak of midnight black. There were some things about this book that made me sad. A whole lot of the characters seemed to be struggling with who it was they really were. I felt sorry for (DORIS) because she's the real victim in all this. She didn't even get a lot of support from her own daughter, (SONYA) which came in spurts off and on. And when she really needed her where was Sonya? Too wrapped up in her own game to give a damn about Doris's addiction. I felt sorry for (LAW). Who I was suspicious of because I thought he is NOT that nice! And during that scene where he comes on to her, I kept thinking wait for it.. He's gonna try to rape her, AND shot her. But Law seemed like he was bi-polar. I think this was hinted at strongly but it masked it with the pills he took were anti-depressants. And almost exactly like with Doris's situation there's a lack of support which leads to his inappropriate fixation and eventually his suicide. The end gives a strong message and shows Sonya taking off the mask and cutting the dreads in her hair. Saying to us to be who we are. But it leaves a question that wasn't answered which is does Sonya leave East Atlanta without telling Kush about the baby.?
RATING: 10 This was a very deep book! It made you take a really long, hard, look at the issue of self-acceptance. Each of the characters to some degree hides a truth about themselves that they eventually had to be confronted with. It was gritty, urban, and street. And it was probably hands down the most reflective book I've read all year.
PLOT: Sonya Crane, is the daughter of a struggling real estate agent and drug addict. She longs to escape her reality just for a little while and step in the world on three street girls she sees on the bus. Later on, she gets her chance when she's transferred to an all-black school in East Atlanta. Here she can easily slide into the façade of being "mixed" (biracial) and the students accept her without question because no white person would even dream of coming to their school. As time goes by Sonya becomes more and more popular and bonds with the leader of the street girls who has a secret of her own. But as Sonya gets deeper and deeper into that world she starts to lose herself in the process. While her actual reality (at home) gets worse and worse. Until it all comes unraveled.
MY THOUGHTS:
It took me a LONG time to get a copy of this. It's been sitting on my wishlist for ages because I was a big fan of the Kimani TRU series! When I first started to read about Sonya, her vulgar, disrespectful, manner put me off to the character. But then as I read further I begin to feel sorry for her and her situation. The book centers around I guess what's supposed to get a reaction out of (I'm assuming) the African American (black) reader because here's another white person (SONYA) hiding behind our ways and culture. But it didn't at first because honestly what else is new? Whites have been imitating our dances, styles, and features for YEARS! And I guess I'm just not one of those blacks that are quick to historically go back through time and start spouting off who did what when how and where in angry fits of passionate arguing. Not my style. So no Sonya fronting like she was black didn't get a rise out of me (at first). That is until she started to "wig". I think it was ok when she was just hanging with us until she turned into one of us and forgot she wasn't. Even though if Sonya's picture on the cover is a true representation of what the author had in her head for the character she DOES NOT LOOK EVEN REMOTELY MIXED! PERIOD! I don't see an ounce of black about this girl. And I found it amusing that the black girl she chooses to imitate (TANDY) when she finds out she doesn't get high, drunk, and sleep around she feels disappointed by. First I've heard of a white wanting the negative traits of being black. Also amusing to me that as much as you hear that blacks are ashamed of the color of their skin, Sonya can also be accused of being ashamed that she's white. First I've heard of that also. Then we get to the BS in the book. Sonya is all into her fronting now and goes on this spill to Kush about maybe it's not about whites perpetrating being black. Maybe it's about them "wanting to belong". BULL SHIT! Whites may "borrow" from us (coughs steal) BUT deep down they do not want to "belong" to us. You can't make me believe that. I don't think you'll find one that wakes up in the morning and says "I'm tired of being white today. I think I wanna be black." YEAH, we'll see how long that last when they have to go through what we do. Nor can you make me believe what Sonya says about her old school not just getting more because they were white. It was because they had more money. And WHY did they get more money? Because they're WHITE! Maybe Sonya's the one that needs to get checked on her FACTS! Because she spouts a bunch of stuff she obviously doesn't know anything about and got from her 5 minutes of being black. And now I am getting a reaction I didn't initially have because a white person should NOT have the audacity to speak with authority on matters that are beyond their limited understanding about being black. A white person will NEVER be black. And can we talk about this speech Sonya gives as a "half black" person? The message is beautiful and basically broken down tells us not to be ashamed of our features and to have pride in ourselves as black women but (again) SHE ISNT BLACK! She envies us. Again nothing new there. But the first time she feels as if she's accepted (secretly as a non-black) is with blacks. Which is kind of messed up. Well, I guess though to some degree to us (blacks) it speaks highly of our acceptance. Even unknowingly and under a lie, we took in a person, not of color and made her one of "us". Tho yes we assumed she already was. And easily I might add. Then we have the black girl's deceptions. I guess there had to be an equal thing going on. One of the main characters that's black (TANDY) is ashamed that she's smart. Honestly this part I didn't get. Maybe because I grew up in a middle-class environment and I'm not a hood chick or a rich chick. I can get why Tandy didn't wanna make it known she had money because you hear all the time about rich people not knowing "is it me she/he wants or is it the fame (money)". Quoting an old NE song. But to downplay herself because she's intelligent is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If your friends can't accept that that's who you are then they aren't really that great of a friend. And then there's this stigma that nerdiness is an uncool thing. And its a common trap in high school. I wish this wasn't true but it IS a real thing. I'm a book nerd and I take pride in my nerdiness. Nerdy people are probably the ones that make the world go round. If there weren't we wouldn't have all the technological, medical, and other advances things we can't live without in the world these days. All created by NERDS! Tandy's secret is exposed about being rich but not about being smart and just like her friends accepted that they'd probably accept the other thing. Then there was a dark skin female (MICHELLE)that was teased and called "darkie" and was ashamed of the color of her eyes? HUNH? I think they were brown and she had gray contacts in. I didn't get this either. People use colored contacts. Probably all the time. Ok. But why is that a big deal that should be kept so hush hush. Maybe the year this book was written it was, but in the year I'm reading it just strikes me as out there that here's this girl crying her eyes out in the bathroom because one of her eyes is a different color. I thought at first she had two different colored eyes. Did she lose the other contact lens? I also felt like (KUSH) was another character who was confused about who he was. First of all isn't Kush slang for weed? Kush's organization is supposed to be a play on The Black Panthers, but in this he comes across as someone that's a perpetrator. He tries to walk the walk and talk the talk but when he gets up to give a speech about his organization he starts going off tangent and talking about aliens and a white person (pretending to be black) has to check him on facts and not being taken serious. I can't say that they're fight was just for show but then can somebody tell me what they're "black power movement" was really fighting for. Equality? There whole movement and going against "the man" went right over my head. Kush came off to me a gray character that had wrapped himself in a cloak of midnight black. There were some things about this book that made me sad. A whole lot of the characters seemed to be struggling with who it was they really were. I felt sorry for (DORIS) because she's the real victim in all this. She didn't even get a lot of support from her own daughter, (SONYA) which came in spurts off and on. And when she really needed her where was Sonya? Too wrapped up in her own game to give a damn about Doris's addiction. I felt sorry for (LAW). Who I was suspicious of because I thought he is NOT that nice! And during that scene where he comes on to her, I kept thinking wait for it.. He's gonna try to rape her, AND shot her. But Law seemed like he was bi-polar. I think this was hinted at strongly but it masked it with the pills he took were anti-depressants. And almost exactly like with Doris's situation there's a lack of support which leads to his inappropriate fixation and eventually his suicide. The end gives a strong message and shows Sonya taking off the mask and cutting the dreads in her hair. Saying to us to be who we are. But it leaves a question that wasn't answered which is does Sonya leave East Atlanta without telling Kush about the baby.?
RATING: 10 This was a very deep book! It made you take a really long, hard, look at the issue of self-acceptance. Each of the characters to some degree hides a truth about themselves that they eventually had to be confronted with. It was gritty, urban, and street. And it was probably hands down the most reflective book I've read all year.
November 14, 2007
i thought this book was excellent because the girl, Sonya Crane was very nervous to move to a different school, especially because of the fact that she is caucasian and everyone else in the new school is African- American. There were many problems in this book and i was surprised that they got through it. Sonya Crane took a big step, pretending that she was half african- american and half caucasian, just to fit in. Towards the end of the book her friends liked her for who she was and not what she was pretending to be. This book was very good.
August 21, 2009
The book was good in a interesting way. The first reason is because the "white girl" in the story was a activist. The second and last reason was because the main character and her lover had sex out of wedlock, and they both were ok with it.
June 9, 2012
it was just so ridiculous. sonya made me wanna shoot myself.
March 20, 2023
Never hated a main character more than Sonya. A whiny, annoying, and nasty white girl pretending to be black to assimilate. Then using the n word because she got too comfortable 😭 it was such a painful experience reading this as a black person.
January 29, 2010
Do you ever feel like the skin that your in isn't good enough for the enviorment which you live in? Like no matter what you do you don't fit in.
Well in this book that's exactly how Sonya feels. She is a white girl in a fully black enviroment. Her mother is a house salesman when she's not wasted(drunk)or strung out(on crack that is). Her mother has a boyfriend name Madison who has sex with her mother until she's out of breath and then fills her immune system with drugs. I mean Sonya is 16 when is her life going to start? She has to worry about how to fit in, get an education, and take care of her mother when the beast Madison isn't around.
Well sonya has decided what she's going to do. She made up a lie and told everyone she was mix and gets respect from everyone. She hangs out with girls who smoke weed, have sex, cuss, and that are very disrespectful. The girl that is the leader of this little "group" is Tandy. Only she also hiding a secret that only sonya has discovered. She's book smart, and filthy rich. Tandy's mother is a fomous artist and doesn't have a worry in the world.
They both are trying to keep their secret identies hidden, but i don't think they can do it. Each one of them has to follows eachother command in order to keep what they know about eachother in the DL.
DO YOU THINK THEY CAN DO IT? Read the book and find out.
Well in this book that's exactly how Sonya feels. She is a white girl in a fully black enviroment. Her mother is a house salesman when she's not wasted(drunk)or strung out(on crack that is). Her mother has a boyfriend name Madison who has sex with her mother until she's out of breath and then fills her immune system with drugs. I mean Sonya is 16 when is her life going to start? She has to worry about how to fit in, get an education, and take care of her mother when the beast Madison isn't around.
Well sonya has decided what she's going to do. She made up a lie and told everyone she was mix and gets respect from everyone. She hangs out with girls who smoke weed, have sex, cuss, and that are very disrespectful. The girl that is the leader of this little "group" is Tandy. Only she also hiding a secret that only sonya has discovered. She's book smart, and filthy rich. Tandy's mother is a fomous artist and doesn't have a worry in the world.
They both are trying to keep their secret identies hidden, but i don't think they can do it. Each one of them has to follows eachother command in order to keep what they know about eachother in the DL.
DO YOU THINK THEY CAN DO IT? Read the book and find out.
November 22, 2009
I typically dont read african american novels due to the fact that most of them i live in my everyday life. But i saw this book at the library and it sounded good, well it was better than good. From rags to riches to rags again, drugs, ghetto girls, smart girls, fakes and phonies, sexual abuse,racial issues, unpretected sex, identity crisis. This book is about a girl who is white but passes for biracial, she is sexually abused by her mother dealer/boyfriend with his "FAVORS", who turns out to be a junkie/harvard drop-out who sucked dick for drugs, her mother owned her own real estate company selling homes to the rich with an occasional sniff of "coke" that turned into a shooting up anything and everything and losing it all, and moved to hood, where sonya became the high yella girl with good hair becoming popular and falling in love with Kusk her BFs brother and joining Black Rebels aka NARC sonya is living a lie but so is tandy with her kick cobain and famous painter mother, mansion and AMAZING good grades, can sonya keep her lies straight while her moms with the "specialist" or will Tandy find out her secrect when there is an unexpected new student or will sonya reveal tandys secrects to keep her own safe. Read this book its amazing, i dont think books should be clasified for age group everybody will learn something from this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2010
This book is crazy becausee........
When Sonya Crane transferred to predominantly black Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School (PLD) in Atlanta, she hadn't planned on passing as biracial. But being one of only a few white students in the school, she finds that hiding her identity makes it easier for her to fit in and gives her the kind of recognition and clique of friends she never had before. That is, until someone threatens to reveal her secret.
For Tandy Herman, the most popular girl at PLD, fitting in was never a problem. She hides her good grades, rock-music tastes and upper middle-class black status by maintaining a ghetto girl facade. But when Sonya finds out, she threatens to reveal Tandy's secret even though it may expose her own.
When Sonya Crane transferred to predominantly black Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School (PLD) in Atlanta, she hadn't planned on passing as biracial. But being one of only a few white students in the school, she finds that hiding her identity makes it easier for her to fit in and gives her the kind of recognition and clique of friends she never had before. That is, until someone threatens to reveal her secret.
For Tandy Herman, the most popular girl at PLD, fitting in was never a problem. She hides her good grades, rock-music tastes and upper middle-class black status by maintaining a ghetto girl facade. But when Sonya finds out, she threatens to reveal Tandy's secret even though it may expose her own.
August 29, 2010
I Have to say that at first this book was getting on my nerves with all the big words and everything but then it sarted to get interesting. Sonya goes to an all black school and is passed for biracial. She finds it easier for her to fit in if she hides her real identity.That is until someone tries to threaten to reveal her secret.
TAndy on the other hand is the ghetto black popular girl at PLD. She hides her good great and the fact that her mother is a popular artist and her loving rock music. But when Sonyah finds out she threatens to tell her secret..Even it can expose her own.
TAndy on the other hand is the ghetto black popular girl at PLD. She hides her good great and the fact that her mother is a popular artist and her loving rock music. But when Sonyah finds out she threatens to tell her secret..Even it can expose her own.
July 20, 2009
it was kool
February 17, 2010
this was different from the others
February 22, 2010
It was a good book alot of unexpected events happened on the book ... mainly a tale about frenemies and two-faced people.
July 30, 2009
Piece of exploitative, graphic, raunchy sh*t. Ghetto Lit.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews