Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes (review)

Donte’s older brother, Trey, fits in well at elite Middlefield Prep school; he’s athletically talented and as light skinned as Donte and Trey’s white father. Donte, on the other hand, has never gone the athletic route, and his dark skin, inherited from their mother, has made him a target for the fencing team bullies, who think it’s hilarious that the two boys could be brothers. The school is oblivious to—possibly complicit in—the bullying, and when the tacit “blame the victim” policy lands Donte in a juvenile court hearing, he decides to fight back the only way he can truly hurt his abhorrent classmate, Alan—defeat him in fencing. First he has to learn to fence, though, and for that he has to convince a former Black fencing champ, now working at the rec center, to teach him. This is a classic sports story, complete with a washed-out coach with a skeleton in his closet, a nastier-than-sin villain, a romantic interest, and a supportive mixed-race family that must daily find its way through the maze of microaggressions. As usual in classic sports stories, Donte learns some lessons he didn’t count on, including how his own economic privilege appears to other kids of color, and how his own brother struggles to navigate having his back while letting him fight his own battles. Readers who mourn the completion of Jason Reynolds’ Track series will be happy to find Rhodes’ take on revenge and redemption.