Black Brother Black Brother

image: World Cat

Rhodes, Jewell Parker.  Black Brother, Black Brother.  2020.  Little Brown and Company, New York, NY.


Donte and Trey attend the exclusive Middlefield Prep in the suburbs of Boston.  The brothers are smart and intelligent, with one huge difference.  Trey takes after his father and is so light skinned he passes as white.  Donte takes after their mother and is dark skinned.  He is the only student of color in his high school.

Donte finds himself arrested by the school staff when Alan, the captain of the fencing team, blames Donte for a pencil that was thrown across the classroom behind the teacher's back.

Furious that he was arrested, Donte decides that he needs to take charge of his life and find a way to beat Alan at his own game.  Trey discovers a Black Olympic Fencer that lives and works at the Boys and Girls Club in Boston.  While home on suspension, Donte finds the mysterious Arden Jones and convinces him to teach him to fence.

Working in the heart of the Boston Boys and Girls Club with Arden and the members of the Club, Donte begins to appreciate the sport of fencing.  But when the big match rolls around, and Donte faces off against Alan, will he be able to keep his emotions in check long enough to beat him?


I really love several things about this book:
1) Donte and Trey's mom is a lawyer.  She files a suit against Middlefield Prep and all of the Private Schools in Massachusetts for their systematic racism against students of color.  Throughout the book, cases of injustice are highlighted as their Mom talks about how the system is broken and needs to be fixed.
2)  Alexandre Dumas was black.  His father was a General in the French Army under Napoleon.  (Did you know this?)  Dumas, and his book The Three Musketeers, are explored during the course of the story.
3) The Peter Westbrook Foundation is highlighted in the story. This foundation teaches young kids of color in New York City how to fence.  Several of their fencers have advanced to International Level Tournaments.
4) Positivity.  There is so much to celebrate in this story.  In spite of all the injustice, Author Jewell Parker Rhodes does point out where progress has been made and how we can continue to strive forward - together - to make progress against racism.

Author Web Site: http://jewellparkerrhodes.com/children/

The Peter Westbrook Foundation: http://www.peterwestbrook.org/

Alexandre Dumas: https://www.biography.com/writer/alexandre-dumas