My June column is coming-of-age type books, one of the most common themes in YA literature. I have a couple of reviews already written, another title already read and I'm working on a couple of others. As usual at this stage it is all about balance - mostly girl books versus boy books which is the eternal struggle in reviewing YA lit but I'm also trying to be more ethnically balanced in every single fiction column I do. (Which was basically impossible with my mystery column next month.) That challenge has brought me to Chameleon by Charles R. Smith. This is Smith's first YA novel but he is well known for other titles, most specifically the amazing Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali which was spectacularly illustrated by Bryan Collier. (I adore that book.) Chameleon is about a teenage boy and the summer before he starts high school. Shawn is bright and likable, he has three good friends he hangs out with and they do a lot of funny trash talk, play a lot of basketball, try not to fall in love with one of the guy's sisters (she is a knockout) and have actual conversations with girls they do have an actual shot at (shades of Harry Potter and Cho). I'm 100 pages into the book and it's very funny; I like Shawn a lot and find him quite easy to identify with and it should be cake to review this book, except.......

...except this is a book about four African American teenage boys who spend the summer in Compton and have to be careful what color shorts they put on each morning because they could get the crap beat out of them (or worse) by one of two competing gangs if seen wearing the wrong colors on the wrong court. I get Shawn when he is embarrassed about his aunt's drinking problem; I get him when he talks to his mom about seeing his dad that weekend (product of a broken home - I totally get that); I get him when is blown away by how gorgeous his buddy's sister is and I get him when he gets tongue tied with Marisol, his classmate who he can barely speak to because he has such a jumbo crush on her. But what does my very white skinned suburban beach town inner teenage girl know about four black kids in Compton dodging gangs? I can't review this book as authentic or realistic on that score because I know nothing about it. But I also know nothing about time travel or rocket ships (or living in an alternate history 1938 Scotland) and I've reviewed those books. I've reviewed books about teenage girls in NYC and LA and the Heartland. Heck, I'm planning to review Melissa Wyatt's Funny How Things Change in June which is about a teenage boy in West Virginia.(Loved it) I know nothing about any of these places or the kids who live there but I find myself able to identify with them. I also identify in many ways with Shawn, but in some major ways I don't. Because I can't. And while I could certainly misfire on reviewing Wyatt's West Virginia setting, I doubt I will get slammed as much as if I misfired on Smith's Compton location or the realism in his portrayal of the "DMZ" (Shawn's word) the boys navigate on a daily basis.

So what is a reviewer to do?

Obviously I am going to review Chameleon (as long as it holds up as well as it has been thus far). It's a good book and good books need to be reviewed. It also happens to be a good boy book which I love to find and shed some extra light on. But as a white reviewer I wonder if there are some aspects of the book I should gloss over - do I just say that Shawn dodges gangs while hanging out with his friends and leave it at that? Do I concentrate more on the stuff that is in my comfort zone (family relationships, dating, etc.)? What is the right thing to do in this case - what is the best thing for the book and potential readers?

Hmmmmm.

I can say what I think of the book but the one thing I did take away from the bits of the RaceFail discussion I read was that as a white person I might very well be missing some grave missteps in Chameleon. Charles R. Smith Jr. happens to be an African American man who obviously was once an African American teenage boy so I'm inclined to think that he knows what he's writing about. But I don't know if he knows anything about Compton (according to his site he did grow up in CA). Do I just trust him? But we've all trusted authors before and when they're wrong - well, they are seriously wrong.

The book is good; the characters are compelling, the setting is vividly described. I feel like I am learning about Shawn's world and I certainly want to keep turning the pages to learn more. I'm just concerned about how to explain all of this - unless maybe it is as simple as admitting what I don't know in the review and praising Smith for writing a book about a place I've never been and situations I've never experienced and making them real to me. Maybe that is the best I can do. I just hope it turns out to be enough - and more importantly - fair to the book and the author and to kids who do know this world.