The Other Side

Clover knows she must never climb over the fence that separates her house from the side where the white people live. But sometime during the summer, Clover gets close enough to that fence to befriend Annie, a little white girl who lives on the other side. Narrator Susan Spain's reading shows admirable restraint; she resists overdramatizing this lightly drawn, understated tale. Spain's gentle, pleasant voice allows the story's poignant message of fences being broken down to speak for itself, and she handles the wistful yet hopeful quality of the ending beautifully. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine

January 15, 2001
Woodson (If You Come Softly; I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) lays out her resonant story like a poem, its central metaphor a fence that divides blacks from whites. Lewis's (My Rows and Piles of Coins) evocative watercolors lay bare the personalities and emotions of her two young heroines, one African-American and one white. As the girls, both instructed by their mothers not to climb over the fence, watch each other from a distance, their body language and facial expressions provide clues to their ambivalence about their mothers' directives. Intrigued by her free-spirited white neighbor, narrator Clover watches enviously from her window as "that girl" plays outdoors in the rain. And after footloose Annie introduces herself, she points out to Clover that "a fence like this was made for sitting on"; what was a barrier between the new friends' worlds becomes a peaceful perch where the two spend time together throughout the summer. By season's end, they join Clover's other pals jumping rope and, when they stop to rest, "We sat up on the fence, all of us in a long line." Lewis depicts bygone days with the girls in dresses and white sneakers and socks, and Woodson hints at a bright future with her closing lines: "Someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," says Annie, and Clover agrees. Pictures and words make strong partners here, convincingly communicating a timeless lesson. Ages 5-up.