Mighty Inside by Sundee T. Frazier

An incoming freshman faces challenges of racism and stuttering in Mighty Inside.

Mighty Inside by Sundee Frazier. Levine Querido (Scholastic), 2021, 230 pages

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 10-14

Melvin Robinson is looking at a wall he can’t climb, called high school. His older brother Chuck is available to offer advice on do’s and don’t’s, but Chuck is a star player on the football team. He can’t imagine what it’s like to be small, shy, and stutter-y, facing a whole new set of challenges with almost no ability to defend himself verbally. Besides that, Melvin will be only one of two black kids in his class, and this is 1962 in Spokane, Washington. Not exactly Mississippi, but his color is an automatic strike against him, and his stammer is the kiss of death.

But, in spite of Chuck’s advice to avoid squares (the 60s equivalent of nerds), on the first day of school there’s one staring right at him from the flagpole. This is Lenny, and within a few hours it’s obvious Melvin couldn’t have avoided him even if he’d wanted to. Lenny seems to understand him from the get-go—or at least wants to be friends with him, mostly because this white Jewish boy is enamored of black jazz and senses a kindred spirit. Melvin does play the accordion—not exactly a jazz emblem, and an instrument Chuck warned him never to bring to school. But Lenny won’t take no, or even maybe, for an answer, and his dream is a sax-accordion jazz duet to compete in the monthly talent contest at the local Harlem Club.

This is a story about friendship, and struggling with handicaps, and racism. Melvin isn’t the only suspect minority; Lenny is only a generation removed from the Holocaust, and Melvin’s crush, Millie Tanaka, can remember, if only barely, living in an internment camp. But racism is not seen as hopeless. Melvin’s sister Miriam is a member of the homecoming court, even if she has to take a hotel freight elevator up to the homecoming dance (two of the white girls join her). Chuck’s talents are recognized, even if he is sometimes slighted. Melvin makes one good friend. And if his family had to fight to own a house in their neighborhood, they are largely accepted now. Mighty Inside is an endearing story of hope.

Consideration:

• Throughout the novel, the word Negro is used to refer to African-Americans. Though out of favor now, the author explains that she included it for historical veracity. Also, the N- word is included twice, in a context that should explain why.

Overall Rating: 4.25

• Worldview/moral value: 4.5
• Artistic/literary value: 4

Read more about our ratings here.      

Also at Redeemed Reader:  

• Reviews: See our review of Paperboy, another story of a boy with a stammer.  Another good novel about postwar race relations is The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA. And in our own day, a boy forges a personal link to the Holocaust in Linked.       

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