Published Aug. 6
My lips are white. Sixteen-year-old Sep stares into the bathroom mirror. It's not some weird lipstick (she never wears lipstick). Her lips are just ? white. In a panic, she digs up an old lipstick and smears it on her colorless lips. But soon, more and more white spots begin to bloom, spreading their chalky tendrils across her olive brown skin. Does she have a disease? Is she turning into some kind of freak? Sep is usually the one who knows all the answers. With a quicksilver mind and a supple body, she's happiest when she's delving into the mysteries of animal biology or giving herself over to sweet, hot moves in Jazz Dance Club. Unlike her best friend, Devin, she's never been in a rush to get a boyfriend. But as the white blotches spread, her dating days ? like the endangered species she studies ? seem numbered. So when Joshua, a boy she's always liked, makes a flirty advance, she wonders: why not grab pleasure while she can? Frank, funny, and full of passion, this is the empowering story of a strong gifted teen who, as her life spins out of control, desperately tries to prove to the world ? and herself ? that she is deeper than skin.
Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. Donna Jo has five children. She dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist. She loves to garden and bake bread.
At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. But dear dear Taxi died in 2009.
She lives outside Philadelphia. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University, then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She has since taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College. It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in 1984). She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and Capital Normal University of Beijing (China), as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). In the area of linguistics she has authored five books (one of which is being translated into Korean), co-authored four (one of which is in Italian), edited one, and co-edited four (with a fifth in press), ranging from theoretical linguistics to practical matters in language structure and use, including matters of interest to d/Deaf people. She has held grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation.
This one was not what I thought it was. I tend not to read what a book is about before I snag it lol. Well this one although not paranormal in anyway was really good! Its about a girl whom has an illness called Vitiligo which takes the pigment out of your skin and hair. This is a very heartwarming and wonderful book that deals with issues such as acceptance, appearance, and friendship. With a wonderful cast of characters with depth and real life issues this is one realistic fiction that will keep you reading until the last page!
"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way
influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."
Q and A with author Donna Jo Napoli thanks to Amazon.com
Q: What inspired you to write Skin?
A: I met a woman who had the skin condition vitiligo. It was so extreme, it took me a moment to be able to look her in the eye rather than look at her face. That bothered me, because I was worried she might have noticed the hesitation. And then I wondered whether she was born that way or at what point it had occurred. So I started reading, and I came across a lot of information about how teens deal (or don't deal) with vitiligo. Vitiligo can have strong negative effects on self-image and self-esteem, and when the onset is during the teen years, vitiligo sufferers report more nasty comments from others. Some experience severe depression; among those, risky behavior (unprotected sex, drug abuse) is not uncommon, including suicide attempts.
Q: Why are you so passionate about this novel? A: I had a family experience that made me a pariah as a teen; people stopped talking to me, my friends weren’t allowed to spend time with me. My self-esteem tanked. So I immediately identified with someone who felt "marked" or "afflicted", as a lot of the teens I read about who have vitiligo described themselves. I made mistakes in handling my situation -- not the same mistakes Sep makes -- but serious mistakes. So I felt a strong connection to Sep's situation, and I wanted to explore the situation of a girl who makes serious mistakes in handling her problem.
Q: The contemporary realistic style of Skin seems very different from your other YA fiction, which is often structured around the exploration of fairy tales. Why did you decide to work in this genre? What were the challenges in writing it?
A: In most ways writing this book wasn't a different challenge from writing my other books. I had to do a lot of research, both on vitiligo and on high school culture today. Where the challenge lay was in characterization. So many books for teens are about people in extraordinary circumstances who rise to the challenge. It is exhilarating to read these things; it is comforting to believe that we might be able to rise to the challenge ourselves if we were in the main character's shoes. But not everyone rises to the challenge -- and many people spend some time hiding from the challenge before they finally face it. Sep is an ordinary girl, not a born hero. She never chose to be different. She has no interest in being the center of attention. Vitiligo is thrust upon her and she hides. She is frightened and constantly hoping that the vitiligo will stop and she'll be only "slightly" different from her old self. But eventually she realizes that she's got to deal with it. And the first step is to accept herself – a really hard task, since “herself” keeps changing. That's the real challenge in life, I think. If you understand yourself and you accept those things you cannot change about yourself, you are then free to focus on the rest of life -- on the things you can change, on the things you can do. That's when you flower as a human being. The hardest thing for me was to try to make Sep's behavior deplorable (not telling Joshua her situation is dishonest and unfair to him) while at the same time making the reader empathize with her. The things we do before we are ready to face our problems are often baffling to others. Family and friends may want to shake some sense into us. My job was to keep the reader on Sep's side even when they wanted to shake some sense into her.
Q: Why do you think it will speak to teens? What are you hoping teens will take away from reading the book?
A: I want very much for any reader to feel stronger after reading one of my books. With this novel, I'm hoping that teens will see that Sep really blew it -- she is a good person basically, but she messed up pretty bad. In the end, though, she did catch hold of herself. All of us make mistakes. But with a lot of hard work and determination and just a little bit of luck, we can recover from those mistakes. Sep's life is always going to be complicated by the fact that she has vitiligo. But her personal relationships do not have to be complicated by it -- and she knows that now. She's stronger now. My hope is that the reader will feel stronger along with her. I also hope that readers will develop some understanding of some of the challenges that people face when they have vitiligo or any other visually apparent "difference" -- even acne (which can get severe). We are an appearance-driven culture in so many ways. It's hard to stand up to the pressure of having to look a certain way. What happens to the people who simply cannot "look a certain way"? Maybe some of my readers will rise to the challenge of becoming a warrior for someone who is ridiculed or shunned, in the same way that some of Sep’s friends become warriors to support her.
Q: Sep moves from having no sexual experience to daily sexual activity in a matter of weeks. Why did you rush it?
A: I didn't rush it. Vitiligo rushed it. Sep feels she's in a race. She fears she will become repugnant. So in her mind it's "now or never". Each splotch of vitiligo urges her on. She's breathless, racing so hard she can hardly think, so she gives up on thinking and simply races. Is this realistic? I read interviews with teens who face this fear (not only people with vitiligo, but people in other situations, too) and I concluded it was. I also tested out various drafts of the story over the years on teens, and listened to their reactions and revised accordingly. (My first draft was written in 2006. I tend to work on a YA novel for many years before I feel that it's ready to be published.)
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