White Wash

White Wash was written by Ntozake Shange and illustrated by Michael Sporn. It is about a colored girl and her brother who walked home from school one day and got jumped by a white gang of boys. They beat up her brother and put white spray paint on her face. I thought the story was very sad and I felt bad for the two children while reading it. I can not imagine this type of thing ever happening, but I know it does or has happen to people. I definately think this book is on the controversial shelf because of the stereotypes it portrays. The people gang that beat up the two children was a bunch of white boys. I feel this is a very typical stereotype, but it definately is one. I thought the book brought a lot of emotion. I think it may be a hard book for children to understand. If a very young child was reading this I don't think they would understand where the hate came from. I feel you would have to be old enough to understand the types of feeling some people of different races have against eachother. It would be hard to make children understand why and how people can be so cruel to eachother.