I received this e-galley from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Sharon Draper is hard to beat. Her realistic fiction is spot on. Blended has been a hit in our school library. Draper writes a moving family story in with relatable and lovable characters.

This book dealt with really well with some heavy topics and made it age appropriate for middle grade. Isabella is navigating life split every-other week with her divorced parents. Each parent has a new significant other, and she's dealing with what that means, but also being bi-racial, she feels torn between all her identities.
She also deals with kids at school saying insensitive things and she has to learn to deal with it. Then things get serious when her and her brother are pulled over the police.
Overall- I think kids will be able to relate to a lot of things that Isabella is struggling with and I will definitely be putting a copy in my classroom library.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I fear that it tried to tackle too much: racial insensitivity, being mixed race, being caught between angry parents after a divorce, and police prejudice against people of color. Ultimately, I wished the book had treated each of these topics in a more nuanced way.

A powerful and well-written story, Draper does a great job with characterization as always. Isabella reminded me strongly of other pre-teen girls I have known. If you enjoy realistic juvenile fiction, add this to your list. I’d also say this is a great book to recommend to young readers who are not quite ready to read The Hate You Give.

Isabella switches lives every week. One week she lives with her dad, his girlfriend, and her son in a very fancy house, and the next week she lives with her mom and John-Mark in a comfortable house.

She's eleven years old and stuck between two parents who argue all the time about her, and she's stuck in two different worlds. Switching houses every week is more than just switching clothes and names (Izzy with her mom, Isabella with her dad). It's also switching identities.

Isabella is the same person, but her life experiences with her black dad and her white mom are very different. Isabella and Darren (her dad's girlfriend's son) are stopped by police, and things escalate quickly when a cell phone is mistaken for a gun.

Blended packs a lot into a middle grade novel, but kids deal with these situations everyday: blended families (in race), blended families (in living situation), questions about who you are, where you belong, and how others and society perceive you. Blended will hit home for many while offering insight for those who haven’t experienced these things. It’s a thought-provoking read that middle grade students will enjoy.

Sharon Draper has written yet another touching, important book for middle grade readers. This time, she covers race and identity in middle school. Isabella just doesn't know where she fits in since she is mixed. Her divorced parents are not very nice to each other and she is just trying to figure things out when someone at school does something very mean to one of her friends. There is a surprising event that happens very close to the end, which I would have liked to see earlier in the book to make the closure seem more realistic.

The magnificent Sharon Draper does it again!
Isabella is a realistically portrayed tween dealing with newly divorced parents, racism and prejudice, and the need to find her place in the world. Readers will easily be able to relate or empathize with her journey. Recommended for all middle grade libraries.

“The world looks at Black people differently. It’s not fair, but it’s true.”

Isabella’s life is complicated. Her parents are divorced and so she lives in two different houses. To make matters worse, things are contentious between her parents. Adding to the mix, each parent has a new significant other. But they all love Isabella and want what’s best for her.

Isabella also has a lot of complication at school. Because her father is black and her mother is white, students often ask her inappropriate questions. Sometimes she’s not even sure what to think. During a discussion of racism in her social studies class, she is very conflicted. “If I spoke up right now, would I speak up for the white kids or the Black kids? Or both? Or neither?”

But things start to spiral out of control after that class discussion. Imani, who was very vocal during the discussion on racism, finds a noose in her gym locker the next day. For Isabella, It starts to bring into sharper focus that she can’t always assume that the world is safe.

Such an important book that needs to be read and discussed in classrooms.

Izzy is the daughter of divorced parents and spends alternating weeks with each parent. Both parents are in new relationships, but they do not get along with each other. Her mom is white and her dad is black so Izzy is a blend of the two of them. The story is told as Izzy alternates her weeks between mom and dad, prepares for a piano recital and hangs out with her friends.

This book took me forever to read because it was boring and disjointed. I finally just forced myself to finish it. After Draper's previous book (Out of My Mind), I expected a lot. The majority of this book was BORING! It was just Izzy going from one parent to the other with nothing much happening. Pretty much like real life which everyone experiences but no one wants to read about. Then Draper tried to throw in a racial storyline that didn't work. The ending with the police stop and shooting came out of nowhere and didn't make any sense in the story. Definitely not a book I would recommend or ever read again.

At first a gentle representation of living in a blended family, this book gets more serious when the protagonist's outspoken black friend finds a noose in her locker and then takes an even darker turn near the end when the protagonist is involved in a police shooting. Not as graphic as Ghost Boys, but still provokes a visceral reaction. An important story in 2018.

Another excellent middle grade novel from Sharon M. Draper. The main character is very relatable. A real life look at some tough issues for today's young people.

Isabella’s life is somewhat of a balancing act as she moves from one divorced parent’s house to the other each Sunday. She loves both parents but finds their issues and disagreements to be challenging. With a black father and a white mother, Isabella, age 11, sometimes wonders about her own identity and just who she is. One day a horrible decision by an officer really shakes up her family and leaves all of them with a great deal of anger along with several questions. This is another excellent story by Sharon Draper.

DRC received from NetGalley.

11 year old Isabella deals with blending into two families when her divorced parents remarry and force her to split her time and life moving back and forth between two homes; blending the two parts of her bi-racial makeup into one unique individual and blending into a life where she feels she isn't seen.

I felt this poor girl's struggle throughout this story. The tug-of-war she felt being stuck between two divorced parents who don't get along, being a bi-racial child and not knowing where she fit in, and the racism she had to deal with in her day-today life. This is a moving book filled with relevant issues that Ms. Draper deals with in a realistic and pragmatic manner.

I’ve loved reading Sharon Draper’s writing before, so I was pleased to get to read Blended on NetGalley. Blended is like reading the journal of an 11 year old girl - Sharon gives us a perfect view inside Isabella’s heart: her frustrations with her divorced parents, her mixed feelings about her “extra” parents, her growing awareness of racism. Izzy’s strength is her positivity - this child finds a silver lining everywhere. But I really loved seeing her take a stand for herself at different places in the story. The climax blew me away. This book is so timely, and I have students that need this book, so I am glad it will be out this week!

I was approved for this title on 10/23/18 with a publication date of 10/30/18 but was not able to download the file. I tried multiple times through my phone and my computer but the file was blank on my phone. The application used on my Mac was not compatible with the arc file. There was not an option to read via my kindle from the publisher. I tried reaching out to Netgalley staff but I was not able to download the file with their assistance. I will be looking forward to buying this when the book comes out on 10/30/18.

Caught between two worlds in every aspect of her life, Isabella is trying to stay sane, figure things out and remain true to herself even if even that is fluid. With a climax ending that will have you reading full speed as ripped from the headlines style real world drama usurps the family mayhem and shifts this belended family in a new direction albeit with some unexpected scars.

Blended tells the story of 11-year-old Isabella as she navigates having a new blended family. Her parents divorced years earlier, but when her dad moves back to Ohio the custody arrangement is changed. Isabella now has to alternate weeks with her mom and dad. It's confusing and unsettling for her. She is lost, unsure who she is.

Isabella is a great middle-grade character. Draper writes in an authentic 11-year-old voice while tackling tough topics. Since Isabella is mixed raced (her mom is white, her dad black) she is really struggling with her identity. One thing I liked about this book is all the supportive adults in Isabella's life. Both parents have new significant others and they all love Isabella like their own. Many times Isabella is stuck in the middle of her parents disagreements, but it always comes back to her and what is best for her.

The ending takes a surprising turn touching on Black Lives Matter and police violence against young blacks. Isabella deals with this after a few incidents earlier in the book relating to race and prejudice. While the comments she deals with are never over the top hurtful or racist, they still sting, which I think made it more powerful. Often in books dealing with race the racism is very blatant. In Blended, Draper shows how micro-aggressions can be just as hurtful and confusing -- especially for someone young like Isabella.

Blended is a great, poignant read for middle grade readers. It touches on a lot of topics relevant to today and I think it explains them in a way that tweens can understand them.

**I received an e-ARC from Netgalley**

Good book with excellent illustrations aimed at the 4th-6th grade reader of realistic fiction with a bit of humor who can handle nearly 300 pages on an upper 4th grade AR reading level. Frederick Frederickson is a flea in a jungle-themed food chain of middle school, but when a boating mishap lands him in a weekend camp for troubled boys, he is handed a new identity and the opportunity to be a lion in that same food chain. Kate Beasley (Gertie’s Leap to Greatness) peppers the tough, “transformational” camp with funny scenarios and diverse campers and, by the end, leaves readers with lessons on honesty, finding and being a friend, handling difficult life events, and being a team player. Dan Santat of Sidekicks, Are We There Yet and more, does the too infrequent, fabulous, black/white sketch style illustrations that add the perfect touch to the text. I happily promote this Junior Library Guild choice in my 5th grade library and if the budget allows, will also place it at my 4th grade campus library as well. No notes on profanity, violence or sexual content needed on this one.

Great topics and very well written, but very mature topics for elementary school. Not a read aloud for an entire class unless it is for older students. It will be on our library shelf but for the kids who can handle difficult and uncomfortable topics such as divorce and race.

Sharon Draper's Blended is a powerful book about race, growing up in divorced households, navigating middle school, crushes, and hate. She writes from the point of view of 11 year old Izzy, who is shuffled between two parents' households, spending one week at each and dealing with less than amicable parental exchanges at the mall. Throughout all of this there are tremors of racism that pop up at school and in the community, making the world a scarier place for Izzy, who is a blend between her white mother and black father. Draper does a beautiful job of writing from her perspective and making you feel her confusion, fright, anger, and ultimately, pain. A must have for any middle school library; also an excellent book read for discussing racism and the culture it breeds.