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    Blended
    Blended
    Blended
    Audiobook5 hours

    Blended

    Written by Sharon M. Draper

    Narrated by Sharon M. Draper

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper.

    Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

    Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about HER. Isabella feels even more stuck in the middle, split and divided between them than ever. And she’s is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?

    It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again—until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 30, 2018
    ISBN9781508258780
    Author

    Sharon M. Draper

    Sharon M. Draper is a three-time New York Times bestselling author for Out of My Mind, Blended, and Out of My Heart. She’s also won Coretta Scott King Awards for Copper Sun and Forged by Fire and multiple honors. She’s also the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens. Sharon taught high school English for twenty-five years and was named National Teacher of the Year. She now lives in Florida. Visit her at SharonDraper.com.

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    Reviews for Blended

    4.5/5

    198 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Amazing depiction of how children are forced to be the adults sometimes. Social ills with respect to race and perception still continues to haunt the human race

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was an amazing book and equally amazing listen. My heart leapt to my throat at some point and broke even more because this is what we go through every day being black. I loved how the book touches on so many themes and issues, seen from the eyes of an 11year old. Highly recommended!!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Great book, sounded like a sixth grader. Just not sure why it turned into the Hate U Give in the last few chapters

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It was awesome a little scary but other than that it was a great book ?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Thought provoking! Isabella is a strong girl, and her story provides a lot to talk about with regards to social justice.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book is so heartwarming and sweet, about family and friendship and discovering yourself. The reader has an amazing voice, it’s perfect for Isabella’s character.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was a GREAT book?
      I truly enjoyed it♥️
      Such a true story and well I just found the book very interesting...
      I really recommend it?
    • 5/5
      Though I am an 55-year old adult, I enjoyed the book. I chose to read/listened this along side a 13-year old family friend. Glad I did!
    • 5/5
      I was looking for a good book to recommend to students of divorced parents. I got that and so much more with this book. Sharon Draper creates really likable characters, and yet she does it in an economical way. This is a quick read whose structure, going back and forth between mom's week and dad's week, gives you a sense of her unsettled life. Izzy tells it like it is. A strong book choice for tweens who will connect with Izzy's love of mall shopping and slime making.
    • 4/5
      Isabella feels pulled in two different directions - her mother is white, her father black; her mother calls her Izzy, her father Isabella; and their custody agreement means she lives in a different house every week.Izzy tells her story as a middle school girl navigating school, friends, racism, and complicated family in chapters headed "Mom's week", "Dad's week" or sometimes "Exchange Day" to orient where she is as the year progresses. It deals with a lot of big, complicated but important topics that kids deal with in a sensitive way.
    • 4/5
      This is, quite clearly, The Hate U Give for younger kids -- it's also a moving story about an 11 year old girl struggling to find her way between her divorced parents bickering (1 black and affluent, 1 white and poor, both devoted to her and insistent about their custody time), and an artist's story -- Izzy/Isabella is a talented pianist, who devotes herself to musical practice. Lots of great stuff in here, from the early conversation about lynching that leads to school unrest, to the engaging characters and their different concerns (dueling weddings, great new older brother, racial tension at the mall), to the shocking denouement, and the light moments of kids growing up/crushes.
    • 3/5
      Easy for kids to relate to
    • 4/5
      I haven't read anything by Sharon M. Draper since "Fish Out of Water", which I loved, and I found "Blended" to be just as good. Isabella is such a relatable character with a delightful sense of humour. However, life for Isabella can be difficult as she tries to find her own identity. To make matters more complicated she is the child of a white mother and black father, and often has to deal with racial taunts. Sundays are especially hard when she is exchanged from one parent to the other."Blended" has some serious issues including divorce, racism, class, stereotyping, police prejudice and step-families but Ms Draper has handled them with care and presented them in an age-appropriate manner. Highly recommended for younger readers.
    • 4/5
      Isabella, or Izzy, depending on which house she's staying in and which parent is addressing her, is part of two families but feels torn by fighting between her parents. Both parents have supportive partners. The book covers a lot of ground in a short volume. It deals a lot with Izzy's feelings about her parents and their divorce. It has a racial incident at school. Tension builds around Isabella's big recital and then bam! action from out of the blue. The book delves into what it is to be black in America a bit as well as what it is to be biracial.
    • 4/5
      A perfect middle grades novel about living in America as a person of color, Blended presents Izzy/Isabella as she tries to determine who she is within her own family even as she’s beginning to realize that she has a preconceived identity in society.Izzy loves both of her parents, but she feels like there’s no room for her. Her parents divorce in the beginning. Her father moves away but then returns as a well-paid lawyer. Now she lives one week with mom and one week with dad. These are two very different lives. Mom works at the Waffle House and dates John Mark, who is a super great guy. He loves Izzy and her mother. They all bowl together and just enjoy being together. Dad has a beautiful house in a nice area and dates a talented designer who has a son. Anastasia loves Izzy like a daughter and her son, Darren is seriously the perfect brother. Obviously, both homes are full of wonderful people who love her completely. Going from house to house makes her feel like she’s always being who each parent wants her to be and the world that exists at that particular house instead of just being herself. Izzy enjoys playing the piano and spending time with her friends. She even likes school where new information changes her life as well. Her good friend finds a noose in her locker. This incident is the first time that Izzy sees racism up close. Her father, who is black, tells her gently about being black in society. He doesn’t say much, but it’s information that Izzy’s never thought about. People make comments about her that make her uncomfortable because she is half black and half white. The comments are usually innocently stated because the kids her age don’t realize what can be troubling. A few incidents happen while she’s out in society that makes her see how she is judged by her color and not who she is as a person. Izzy just wants to figure out who she is and play the piano. She’s a sweet girl surrounded by good friends and a loving family. Even with this seemingly perfect life, Izzy feels the pressures of expectations--both familial and societal. For those of you not ready for Dear Martin or the Hate U Give, read this novel. Also, if you liked Ghost Boys, you’ll like this novel as well. It’s pretty short and will be enjoyable and educational for you to read
    • 4/5
      Survival middle school is bad enough but when your parents divorce and seek 50/50 custody and you Mother is Black and your Dad is black, your chances to survive are tough
    • 4/5
      Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she is swapped between families each week. As a pre-teen, she’s confronting issues of identity: being biracial, should she identify as Black? White? Both? An unpleasant incident at school brings these questions to the forefront, but she’s also wrestling with feelings about changes in her family, plus the normal turmoil of growing up.A powerful and well-written story, Draper does a great job with characterization as always. Isabella reminded me strongly of other pre-teen girls I have known. If you enjoy realistic juvenile fiction, add this to your list. I’d also say this is a great book to recommend to young readers who are not quite ready to read The Hate You Give.