The Other Side

by Jacqueline Woodson (Author) E B Lewis (Illustrator)

The Other Side
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Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
cms Common Sense Media Review

Clover's mom says it isn't safe to cross the fence that segregates their African-American side of town from the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls strike up a friendship, and get around the grown-ups' rules by sitting on top of the fence together. 

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Publishers Weekly

Woodson (If You Come Softly; I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This) lays out her resonant story like a poem, its central metaphor a fence that divides blacks from whites. Lewis's (My Rows and Piles of Coins) evocative watercolors lay bare the personalities and emotions of her two young heroines, one African-American and one white. As the girls, both instructed by their mothers not to climb over the fence, watch each other from a distance, their body language and facial expressions provide clues to their ambivalence about their mothers' directives. Intrigued by her free-spirited white neighbor, narrator Clover watches enviously from her window as "that girl" plays outdoors in the rain. And after footloose Annie introduces herself, she points out to Clover that "a fence like this was made for sitting on"; what was a barrier between the new friends' worlds becomes a peaceful perch where the two spend time together throughout the summer. By season's end, they join Clover's other pals jumping rope and, when they stop to rest, "We sat up on the fence, all of us in a long line." Lewis depicts bygone days with the girls in dresses and white sneakers and socks, and Woodson hints at a bright future with her closing lines: "Someday somebody's going to come along and knock this old fence down," says Annie, and Clover agrees. Pictures and words make strong partners here, convincingly communicating a timeless lesson. Ages 5-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-A story of friendship across a racial divide. Clover, the young African-American narrator, lives beside a fence that segregates her town. Her mother instructs her never to climb over to the other side because it isn't safe. But one summer morning, Clover notices a girl on the other side. Both children are curious about one another, and as the summer stretches on, Clover and Annie work up the nerve to introduce themselves. They dodge the injunction against crossing the fence by sitting on top of it together, and Clover pretends not to care when her friends react strangely at the sight of her sitting side by side with a white girl. Eventually, it's the fence that's out of place, not the friendship. Woodson's spare text is easy and unencumbered. In her deft care, a story that might have suffered from heavy-handed didacticism manages to plumb great depths with understated simplicity. In Lewis's accompanying watercolor illustrations, Clover and her friends pass their summer beneath a blinding sun that casts dark but shallow shadows. Text and art work together beautifully.-Catherine T. Quattlebaum, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

* "Manages to plumb great depths with understated simplicity+Text and art work together beautifully."—School Library Journal, starred review

"Pictures and words make strong partners here, convincingly communicating a timeless lesson."—Publishers Weekly

"Even young children will understand the fence metaphor and they will enjoy the quiet friendship drama."—Booklist
Jacqueline Woodson
Jacqueline Woodson (www.jacquelinewoodson.com) is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children's Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist. Born in Columbus, Ohio, Jacqueline grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. She is the author of dozens of award-winning books for young adults, middle graders, and children; among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbery Honor winner, a four-time National Book Award finalist, and a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner. Her books include Coretta Scott King Award winner Before the Ever After; New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me; The Other Side, Each Kindness, Caldecott Honor book Coming On Home Soon; Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster; and Miracle's Boys, which received the LA Times Book Prize and the Coretta Scott King Award. Jacqueline is also a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement for her contributions to young adult literature and a two-time winner of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780399231162
Lexile Measure
490
Guided Reading Level
M
Publisher
Nancy Paulsen Books
Publication date
January 15, 2001
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV039120 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Prejudice & Racism
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
African Americans
Race relations
Summer
California Young Reader Medal
Nominee 2003 - 2003
Georgia Children's Book Award
Nominee 2002 - 2002
Parents Choice Award (Spring) (1998-2007)
Winner 2001 - 2001
Bluebonnet Awards
Nominee 2003 - 2003
North Carolina Children's Book Award
Nominee 2003 - 2003
Golden Sower Award
Nominee 2003 - 2003
New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Award
Winner 2001 - 2001
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award
Nominee 2004 - 2004
South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award
Nominee 2003 - 2004
Red Clover Award
Nominee 2003 - 2003
Young Hoosier Book Award
Nominee 2005 - 2005
Charlotte Award
Nominee 2004 - 2004
Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Award
Honor Book 2004 - 2004

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