Call Me by My Name

April 15, 2014
A friendship between two teens, one black and one white, emerges both because and in spite of racial change in a 1970s Louisiana town. The first time Rodney Boulet sees Tatum "Tater" Henry, he is being attacked for daring to come to a whites-only park. Despite the racial climate, Rodney and Tater become friends a few years later when Tater is the first African-American on the baseball team. Integration of the high school means that he, Rodney, and Rodney's twin sister, Angie, will also be classmates. Angie seems to share their mother's belief in equality, but Rodney carries many of his father's prejudices. High school, with its emphasis on sports and dating, proves tough, especially as Tater demonstrates his talent as quarterback and he and Angie grow close. Bradley is an accomplished sportswriter and deftly evokes the cultural importance of small-town sports and how these communities experienced racial change in the late 1960s and early '70s. Rodney and his family are richly drawn characters; indeed, narrator Rodney's grappling with his ambivalence about race is especially well-done. Tater, on the other hand reads more like a symbol than a person. He has overcome tragedy, but readers are left to wonder at the source of his strength. Still, the atmospheric narrative is successful at revealing the tension and texture of a distinctive time and place and one teenager's struggle to make sense of it. (Historical fiction. 12-16)

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April 1, 2014

Gr 8 Up-Narrator Rodney Boulet first meets Tater Henry in 1965 when Tater strolls into whites-only South City Park, hoping to try out for Pony League. While the other players heap plenty of verbal abuse on the young black boy, 10-year-old Rodney gets Tater safely out of the park before they can do physical harm. Over the next few years, Rodney and his twin sister, Angie, occasionally run into Tater in their small Louisiana town, and the three develop a casual friendship. When their high school is finally desegregated and both boys make the football team, their friendship is cemented. By the time they are seniors, the pair are leading the team to the state championship, which somewhat softens the town's narrow-minded views but not entirely: as Angie's and Tater's relationship moves beyond friendship, the couple are pressured from all sides. They do their best to ignore it, but as they dream of the not-too-distant day when all three of them will be at Louisiana State University, something happens that completely obliterates their plans. Students looking for lots of sports action may be disappointed, as this is a more contemplative tale of friendship in turbulent times. Rodney's quiet and matter-of-fact narration underscores the casual prejudice prevalent well into the 1970s in the Deep South. Recommend to fans of Patricia McKissack or Kristin Levine.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2014
Grades 7-10 It's the late 1960s and desegregation has finally come to small-town Louisiana. Twins Rodney and Angie Boulett have always been friendly with Tater Henry, a black boy from the other side of town, but it isn't until they are freshmen at the newly integrated high school that the three become inseparable. Rodney couldn't be more loyal to his best friend, but their friendship begins to fracture when he discovers the truth of Angie and Tater's relationship. This absorbing story shines a spotlight on the complexities and tension of racial integration. Most characters fall neatly into designated roles and the dialogue can feel didactic, but that doesn't detract from the range of viewpoints reflecting the era's social upheaval. The narration flows best during the lengthy football scenes, where the author's history as a football player really shines. Rodney and Angie seem unusually close (how many 17-year-old siblings spoon?), but readers will connect with Rodney as he struggles to resolve his feelings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)