The books of Sharon Flake

by Frances Sawyer

Sharon G. Flake is the author of five books for young adults, The Skin I’m In (1998), Money Hungry (2002), Begging for Change (2003), Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives (2004) and Bang! (Sept. 2005).  Flake lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her daughter. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in English. While still in college, she began her writing career creating short stories. She was a youth counselor in a foster care agency for many years before she began writing. Following her profession of a youth counselor, she spent 18 years working at the University of Pittsburgh in public relations. She wrote for about 15 years prior to having her first book published (The Skin I’m In) (www.sharongflake.com, 2005).

            Sharon G. Flake has won many awards and recognitions for her young adult writings. In 1999 she won the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe New Talent Award and the YWCA Racial Justice Award. In 2003 she won an award for the Detroit Free Library Author of the Year. In 2004 Flake won many awards, two of which are the Coretta Scott King Honor Award (2002, 2004), and Booklist’s Top Ten Romance Novels for Youth.  And in 2005, Flake won recognitions for Best Books for Young Adult Readers, the New York Public Library Top Ten Books for the Teen Age, 2005 Capitol Choices, and others (www.sharongflake.com, 2005).

            Flake has spent the last seven years writing about teen characters in her novels to which many adolescents can relate. Quoted in The New Advocate, “Flake’s writing is highly engaging; her characters’ dialogue and situations ring true, and the narrative’s metaphors and images are sharp and clear” (www.sharongflake.com, 2005). Flake’s writing is used in public and private schools from elementary to high school levels and it is often required reading in colleges for students in education, child development, children’s literature and English writing programs.

            In Flake’s three novels that I reviewed for this essay, The Skin I’m in, Begging for Change, and Who Am I Without Him, the main characters are African American teenage girls who live with their single mothers. There are common themes pertaining to these three Flake novels that should be brought to the table. They are subject matters that we should be aware of involving our own students as future teacher. The stories take place in urban, poverty-stricken settings, and the fathers are uninvolved or somehow separate from the issues at hand; except in Begging for Change where Raspberry’s father is drug-addicted and a thief. In all three novels, there is a matter of racism involved in the meat of the story. And all the teen characters are somehow searching for their own identity, whether having to do with race or not. Also, Flake writes using the realistic dialogue of the characters she portrays which seem to make the stories more believable and real.        

            The family structure of the single mother and a child is quite common in urban communities. Because there is only one parent in this type of a household, certain problems arise. Quoted in an article in the Journal of Marriage and Family, “Single-parent families are disproportionately poor. In 2001, 41% of African American female-headed households with children under 18 were living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002a qtd. in McCreary and Dancy, 2004, p. 690). Therefore, because these families have only one parent there is only one income; usually resulting in economic instability. In The Skin I’m In, Maleeka’s father has recently passed away, and her mother is having a very difficult time dealing with his death. She is unable to have a job because of this. Maleeka is teased for wearing clothes to school that her mother sews for her, as they cannot afford to buy trendy and modern clothing that popular teens at Maleeka’s school are lucky enough to have.

            In Begging For Change, Raspberry’s father is drug-addicted and living on the streets, so she lives with her mother who works two jobs in order to provide the bare essentials for their family. However, regardless of Raspberry’s mother working two jobs, they live in a crime and poverty-stricken neighborhood. They want to move out of the neighborhood, but can’t because they don’t have the money. 

            In Who Am I Without Him, the story called A Letter to my Daughter, a father is writing a letter to his daughter that lives with her mother. The father has not been around for almost 15 yrs., which is how old his daughter will soon be. He tells his daughter that he had a dream about her in which she had three babies and didn’t know where their daddies were. He tells her he doesn’t want her to turn out like that and continues on to give her advice about boys/men and relationships. It is long overdue advice that a father feels responsible to tell his daughter. He lets her know that he feels ashamed for not being around, but still wants to tell her these important things. 

            This absenteeism is often an issue in single-parent households. Then, after however many years, the absentee parent shows up- whether it’s a positive thing or not is the point. This is a real issue pertaining to many teenagers’ lives, and a lot for a teen to deal with emotionally.

            In a 2004 article in the Journal of Marriage and Family, 20 African American single mothers and 20 adult family members participated in a study about family. The definition of “Family” in this study is “a group of people who are emotionally attached to each other and committed to the protection, nurturance, and socialization of each other, regardless of whether they are biologically related or coreside” (Stuart, 1991 qtd. in McCreary and Dancy, 2004, p. 691-92). This definition is the case of the majority of families today, as many of them are non-traditional. This familial description is evident in Begging for Change in Raspberry’s life, as her mother’s boyfriend Dr. Mitchell, and his daughter Zora, Odd Job (her mother’s friend), and Raspberry’s friends and their families are support systems for Raspberry and her mother. In Who Am I Without Him, Mookie in Love, Mookie’s mother and all of his aunts make up the family. Nowadays mother, father, and children is not the standard family structure.

            Some of the problems that adolescents can face as a result of family life and structure are self acceptance, confidence issues, and searching for one’s identity. In Flake’s novels, race is often associated with teens trying to discover who they are as individuals. The Skin I’m In is a definitive example of the theme of self-acceptance.  Maleeka is an African American girl who has very dark skin. She is teased and made fun of often because her skin is so dark.  Her peers, even those also of African American dissent are the ones who make fun of her skin tone. However, when Maleeka is encouraged and accepted by Miss Saunders, her new teacher, she is able to overcome her own personal issues of superficial importance such as popularity and physical appearance. 

Miss Saunders is African American as well, but she has a large white birthmark on her face. Regardless of this physical “flaw” Miss Saunders is self-assured. Maleeka sees this in her, and as a result she ends up standing up to her peers who have heavily and negatively influenced her life and her choices. She realizes that who she is as a person is who she should not be afraid to be. In a quote at the end of the book, Maleeka says to her so-called friend, “Call me by my name! I am not ugly. I am not stupid. I am Maleeka Madison, and, yeah, I’m black, real black, and if you don’t like me, too bad ‘cause black is the skin I’m in!” (Flake, 1998, p. 167).

Many of the stories in Who Am I Without Him reflect the theme of searching for one’s own identity. In the story, I Like White Boys, Erika is African American and is shunned by her peers of the same race because she is black and prefers white boys. As previously noted, Sharon G. Flake associates self-acceptance/assurance, and finding one’s identity with ethnicity.

According to an article titled The Development of Ethnic Identity During Adolescence, adolescents can be affected by the value that society has placed on a specified group.

Individuals who belong to highly valued groups do not need to modify or enhance their social identity; however, when faced with a context that devalues one’s group, the person may have to engage in a process to negotiate the meaning of his or her identity (French, Seidman, Allen, and Aber, 2006, p. 1-2).

Included in the article, there are certain things people do to deal with ethnic identity and acceptance. For instance, many choose to physically leave the ethnic group and change group membership, “or if group membership is not permeable (modifiable), such as gender, race, or ethnicity, then the individual chooses to psychologically leave his or her group by disidentifying with the group” (French, Seidman, Allen, and Aber, 2006, p. 2).

In Begging for Change, Raspberry’s friend Mai is half Korean and half African American. Mai shuns the issue that she is half Korean, and in accordance with the above article, she chooses to disidentify with her Korean background. She makes the statement by getting a tattoo (without the knowledge of her parents) that says, “100% Black.”  Although Mai’s search for her ethnic identity is not a main focus in Flake’s story, it proves the topic of teens in search of self-acceptance and identity.

In order for Flake to get her points across in a believable and realistic manner, she writes in the same way in which these teenagers speak. When reading her novels, it is as though the teenage character is the one doing the writing, or narrating the story. For example, all of the stories in Who Am I Without Him use the vernacular that urban teens commonly use. When Flake describes the girl in the story I Know A Stupid Boy When I See One, instead of simply telling that the girl is pregnant, she writes it so the girl is telling her own story. Because of the language and style used in the girl’s story, the reader gets a better idea of the character’s personality. 

Truth is, girls ‘round my way get pregnant all the time.  Heck, I’m old compared to most. But in my daddy’s house, a pregnant girl is like a roach crawling ‘cross the kitchen table----something you best get rid of ‘for the neighbors spot it (Flake, 2005, p. 145-46).

By using realistic language and style that fit the personalities of her characters, Flake makes the stories seem more real and actually more entertaining because the character dialogue is reflective of creative interpretation. Although this vernacular may be difficult at first for readers, especially adolescents, it could be discussed and interpreted during class meetings and or lessons pertaining to the language used in Flake’s novels.

            In order to teach these novels and these above focused-on themes in a classroom, there are many options. Although the issue of ethnicity, family life, and the way we speak individually, can be touchy subjects to deal with in the classroom, I believe discussion is a very effective method. 

·        An idea on how to teach the book Who Am I Without Him would be to assign all students a question to answer on a sheet of notebook paper pertaining to the stories in the novel. Desks would be arranged in a circle. After about 10-15 min. of writing, everyone should crumble up their sheets of paper and throw them into the center of the room (anonymously- as students should not put their names on their papers.)  Then each student will go to the center and pick up someone else’s crumbled up paper. We would read these questions and answers aloud to the class and further discuss them.

·        In order to teach self-acceptance and personal identity involved in The Skin I’m In, would be to have students partner up (2 per group). They will be instructed to make a poster of/about their partner. Negative drawings, words, comments, subjects, or anything negative will not be accepted. Between partners, students will be instructed to discuss what they will put on their poster (collage, drawings, words, hobbies, interests, personal background, etc…). The next day in class we will discuss the posters and how other people’s perceptions of someone else are not always correct.  Maybe we can talk about how Maleeka’s peers viewed her, and who she really was.

·        In Begging For Change, I believe that discussion would be the best teaching strategy. To make students aware that they are not the only ones who don’t have a traditional family structure, and that it is ok. Questions such as these would be helpful in teaching this book:

-         Why does Raspberry steal Zora’s money? Do you think she could be considered a friend anymore? Why or why not? Would you be able to forgive her?

-         Which adults in Raspberry’s life act as surrogate parents? How do other adults influence your own life? Can other people ever make up for a missing parent?

One could teach it as a journal writing activity or simply group discussion of some sort. Regardless of how any of these themes are taught, the point is that themes like these, that are common in multicultural literature, should be taught and not tip-toed around. “Multicultural literature could be used as an instructional tool in unifying students from all backgrounds who share the common human experiences that the characters encounter” (Godina & McCoy, 2000 qtd. in Jetton & Savage-Davis, 2005, p. 34).

            Reading these Sharon G. Flake novels will teach students that even though their own personal experiences may not necessarily reflect those of some of Flake’s characters, they are still able to identify with these teens in her stories because adolescents go through many of the same self-acceptance issues and familial issues that Flakes’ characters face. Just because they may not be from the same culture, does not mean that they cannot relate.

“Teachers can feel threatened and defensive when confronted aggressively about these issues. As a result, they often refuse to consider multiple ways of thinking” (Jetton and Savage-Davis, 2005, p. 31). In teaching multicultural issues such as an adolescent’s search for ethnic identity, or (not necessarily multicultural issues yet touchy areas) like a drug-addicted father, or living in a single-parent home, teachers are more able to discuss their attitudes and beliefs when these touchy issues pertain to a fictional character such as Maleeka, or Raspberry in Flakes novels. That is why these novels are important.  Adolescents need to be exposed to real issues and believable characters to which they can relate in their own real lives.

Reading Sharon G. Flakes’ novels has opened my eyes to ways of teaching issues that were somehow glossed over and tip-toed around throughout my early years of schooling. Teaching ethnicity, family background topics, and self-acceptance issues by using the fictional characters in teen novels as a buffer, is a wonderful discovery for me.

  The literary work is not primarily a document in the history of language or society. It is not simply a mirror of, or a report on, life. It is not a homily setting forth moral or philosophic or religious precepts. As a work of art, it offers a special kind of experience. It is a mode of living. The poem, the play, the story, is thus an extension, an amplification, of life itself. The reader’s primary purpose is to add this kind of experience to the other kinds of desirable experience that life may offer (Salvner, 2001, p. 2).

References

French, Seidman, Allen, & Aber. (2006). The Development of Ethnic Identity During Adolescence. American Psychological Association. Vol. 42, p. 1-2. Retrieved July 11, 2006 from Academic Search Premier online (ERIC).

Jetton, Tamara L. & Savage-Davis, Emma M. ((2005). Preservice Teachers Develop an Understanding of Diversity Issues Through Multicultural Literature. The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education. Retrieved July 11, 2006 from Adacemic Search Premier online (ERIC). p. 31, 30-38.

McCreary, Linda L., & Barbara L. Dancy. (2006). Dimensions of Family Functioning: Perspectives of Low-Income African American Single-Parent Families. Journal of Marriage and Family. Vol. 7, p. 690, 690-701.

Salvner, Gary M. (2001). Lessons and Lives: Why Young Adult Literature Matters. The Alan Review. Vol. 28, p. 2, 1-11.