Review of Sharon G. Flake’s Book, The Skin I’m in

The Skin I’m In

The Skin I’m In is about a girl named Maleeka Madison III being teased because of the color of her skin. This book takes place at McClenton Middle School. There was a new teacher named Miss Saunders and Maleeka’s friend, Charlese, made fun of Miss Saunders because of the way she looked. Maleeka, Charlese, and the twins, Raina and Raise, would always hang out in the girls’ bathroom and smoke. Charlese always gave Maleeka clothes because Maleeka’s mom is bad at sewing. For example, the buttons are crooked. In Miss Saunders class they answer a question, “What does your face say to the world?” Also, in that class they had to work with partners on a class assignment and Maleeka’s partner, Desda, didn’t do any of the work and told Miss Saunders that Maleeka did all the work and she didn’t help at all. Next, a girl named Daphne Robinson was thinking Maleeka was kissing her boyfriend, Worm.

Daphne got real angry and pulled Maleeka’s braids and then started punching her. That led Daphne to going to the principal’s office and Maleeka with a bloody chin and snot on her new shirt. After that, Maleeka got punished for the fight. She had to work in the school office. Maleeka tries to see what the teachers think of Miss Saunders without them knowing she works in the office. Maleeka wants to be treated differently. So, she tells her mom and her friend, Sweets, that she is going to get her hair cut. Then she goes to Sweets’ cousin’s shop and gets her hair cut. That next day at school she gets teased because of how short her hair was. So, she runs in the bathroom and starts crying. After a while she remembered what her dad told her. He said that it doesn’t matter what other people think of you. It’s what you see and what you think of yourself. Also, Maleeka and her mom need to get a new alarm clock because she is sometimes late for school. Charlese gets mad at the lunch lady for giving her a horrible lunch. She tells Maleeka to take it back to the lunch lady and get a better lunch. Maleeka realized that you shouldn’t see yourself in other people’s eyes and you shouldn’t care what they say about you because they are jealous of you. Nothing good will ever come from loving someone so much you can’t live without them (e.g. Romeo and Juliet). Miss Saunders won’t go back to the business because she would always try to out-do someone.

The teachers at McClenton Middle School don’t like Miss Saunders. There were some complaints by the parents on how much homework she gives. Charlese’s sister, Juju, always had parties at least once or twice a month. It doesn’t even bother Charlese as long as she gets paid, she doesn’t mind missing some sleep. After she leaves their house, she walks home and gets teased by a couple street boys. One of them wants her to kiss him while the other one holds her. Every time they did she would fight back. Now it’s been a month since she has been teased or attacked by the two boys. Also, how she has been relating Akeelma, a girl she has been writing about, to herself and how she’s scared that people will say she’s ugly. Next, Charlese, the twins, Raise and Raina, and Maleeka get in trouble with Miss Saunders for being in the bathroom. They are in detention. The detention room is in the basement. The room is damp, cramped, and hot. There are desks and chairs and a detention teacher. Also, Maleeka’s friend, Caleb, comes into detention, like he’s amazing and sits two seats from her and they start talking. Miss Saunders is making her class do speeches in the auditorium. Maleeka is listening to Tai, the math teacher, and Miss Saunders’ conversation. Then she gets in trouble for listening to their conversation. Then she tells Maleeka she shouldn’t tell anybody about their conversation. After that Maleeka goes to the library and enters in the writing contest. Her mom lets her stay up finishing her essay for the contest. Then she tells Maleeka about a poem her dad wrote for her (pg. 124). Charlese’s sister, Juju, comes to the school and starts yelling at the principal because Charlese is going from all A’s to all D’s because of Miss Saunders. Also, Juju doesn’t what Char to flunk the 7th grade for a third time. Char is going to get back at Miss Saunders for ragging her out to Juju.

The four girls are going to messes up Miss Saunders room. Caleb comes along and warns Maleeka about Charlese. He told her that she’s the type of friend that Maleeka doesn’t want to be friends with. She can either get locked up or shot up with Char. That next day the four girls go into Miss Saunders’s room and mess it up and Maleeka starts a fire in the room gets a busted knee and gets in trouble with the janitor. Maleeka is trying to figure out how to tell her mom she set a room on fire. But luckily her mom was asleep when she got home. That next day she gets suspended for what she did. Her mom whooped her because of that and Maleeka went on restriction/ punishment. John-John gets beat up by three guys and Maleeka tries helping him, but the guys start coming after her. Then Caleb comes with mom and some other adults and save Maleeka and take care of John-John. Also, Maleeka found out that she won the writing contest she had entered (chap. 22). Maleeka is trying to find a way to tell that she didn’t mess up Miss Saunders room all by herself. She knew that Charlese was going to beat her up if she told on her. Miss Saunders came to Maleeka’s house and wanted Maleeka to explain what happened. She knew that Maleeka didn’t do it all by herself. She knew that Maleeka had help from Charlese, but Maleeka didn’t admit it. Maleeka stood up to Char and told Miss Saunders the truth. Maleeka realized that it doesn’t matter what people say about you as long as you know the skin you’re in. Maleeka didn’t even care what everyone thought about what she did. Also, Caleb wrote her a poem (pg. 169). The life lesson in this book is that you should never care what people think about you. It doesn’t even matter what they say.

Works Cited

1. Flake, S. (2000). The Skin I'm In. Jump at the Sun.
2. Freadman, A. (2019). Constructing Identity in Adolescent Fiction: The Skin I'm In and The House on Mango Street. Children's Literature in Education, 50(1), 49-63.
3. Hayden, L. S. (2003). The Power of Voice: Reflections on The Skin I'm In. The ALAN Review, 30(3), 30-33.
4. Kuznets, L. (2007). Everyday Belonging: A Critical Examination of Social Identity in The Skin I'm In. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(7), 584-596.
5. Lamb, N., & Young, K. (2005). Reading the Skin: The Skin I'm In and the Phenomenology of Girlhood. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(6), 488-499.
6. Mazanec, N. (2004). Creating Space for Critical Literacy: Using The Skin I'm In to Explore Race, Power, and Identity. Language Arts, 81(3), 202-210.
7. Ray, S. B. (2001). A Mirror Image: Identity Formation and the Search for Self in Middle School Students as Portrayed in The Skin I'm In. In V. A. McQuillan (Ed.), The Literary Curriculum: Mapping the Territory (pp. 139-150). Teachers College Press.
8. Rief, L. (2001). Finding One's Place in Middle School: An Exploration of Identity in The Skin I'm In. In P. H. Martens (Ed.), A Celebration of Literature and Response: Children, Books, and Teachers in K-8 Classrooms (pp. 253-260). Erlbaum.
9. Rhodes, K. (2012). Critical Race Theory and The Skin I'm In. In Children's Literature Association Quarterly (Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 412-433). Johns Hopkins University Press.
10. Trites, R. S. (2003). Adolescence: The Skin We're In. In Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature (pp. 53-77). University of Iowa Press.