Living in Two Worlds

By: Maxine B. Rosenberg, George Ancona
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1986
Age Level: 9-12
Language: English
ISBN: 0-688-06278-4

OUT OF PRINT

Toah’s father is black, Shashi and Anil’s father is Asian Indian, Jesse’s mother is Chinese, and Megan’s father is himself biracial—a mixture of Cherokee and black. Each child’s other parents is white.

Just under 2 percent of all children born in the United States are of mixed racial and ethnic heritage. Like all children, biracial children combine their parents’ differing physical features. But biracial children grow up with an everyday awareness that they are living in two worlds—since each is from two cultural backgrounds.

Here, as the children themselves speak about who they are and how they feel about themselves, it becomes clear that the special challenges they experience go hand in hand with the special benefits of belonging to more than one culture.