Product Description
A young African-American man describes growing up in an all-black Brooklyn housing project, one of twelve children of a white mother and black father, and discusses his mother's contributions to his life and coming to terms with his confusion over his own identity. 75,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Amazon.com Review
Order this book ... and please don't be put off by its pallid subtitle, A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, which doesn't begin to do justice to the utterly unique and moving story contained within. The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 585 reviews)

Students #1 choice!

Two Literacy Students at the Aguilar Language Learning Center (of the New York Public Library) recently read this book in their tutoring group and wrote these reviews:

MARIA LOPEZ
This book made me laugh, made me feel sad, and broke my heart. I found the book fascinating. It was a great read. One of my favorite passages was the description of Ruth riding her bicycle. One part that made me laugh and laugh was when Ruth and Mary got boyfriends. I also love when Ruth disappeared for a few days and went to Brooklyn to visit her old friends.

I loved the chapter about Chicken Man. James thought he was smarter than people thought. That is true. He is very smart! Also, I was very sad to read about how James acted as a teenager. I think that he must have felt very lonely.

I really enjoyed reading The Color of Water. I have never read a book like it before. I learned a lot about different cultures and the value of family.

MARIAME TRAORE
I recommend The Color of Water by James McBride because it teaches us about family values and culture. James McBride was raised with many brothers and sisters in the early 60¹s by his white mother. As a child, McBride always questioned why he and the rest of his family look different from his mother. As he got older he found out the truth and learned to respect his family and his culture.

November 15, 2008

Allen Hoage's Review

Take a minute for yourself and your family and please read The Color of Water. What you can learn from this book expert in a few minutes is that the McBride family is no different from my big family. We came from the South to the North for a good life and to get a good education. A black man married out of his race and struggled. They had to keep the marriage quiet because in the South, if a black man was walking down the street, and a white woman was walking down the same street, the black man would have to turn his head away. I have no problem passing this book to a family member or a friend. I relate to this book because my kids married our of their race. If they are happy then I'm happy too. It is your right to marry whomever you want. Don't listen to people telling you that it can't work out. Listen to what God is saying and it will work. Have you ever watched little boys and girls play in the park? Sit down and watch. They do not see color. Kids live to have fun. Growing up in the same neighborhood, they are good friends. But somewhere down the line these relationships may change. I notice that we are beginning to understand each other better, and books like The Color of Water pave the way for this better understanding.
November 11, 2008

Unsentimental and touching

This is a remarkably unsentimental portrayal of a black man's white, Jewish mother who finds a life with those of another race more sustaining than staying with her own.
September 21, 2008

A touching tribute to an incredible woman and family

This book had been on my shelf for a long time. Having just finished it, I can only wish that I would have read it much, much sooner.

This book alternates chapters between the author's voice (the son, James McBride) and the mother's voice. He uses italics for those chapters in his mother's words and, while it seems this would be clear enough, I still got very confused in the first half of the book. I would begin a chapter knowing it was in the mother's voice because of the italics but, once I was heavily into the chapter, I would get confused about the family history because both her chapters and his chapters are written in first person. This is the only reason I gave this book 4 stars vs. 5, because it was otherwise an outstanding and truly touching read.

This is the story of a white Jewish woman who marries a black man and raises 12 children (a combination of his children and her second husband's). Despite the fact that the family was desperately poor during much of their lives, all of her children went to college and most went on to be doctors, teachers, nurses, etc. She wasn't exactly the picture of a smiling, perfect Donna Reed-like mom; she was a tough cookie, but she fiercely loved her children and raised them to be good people. All of this while being completely shunned by her own family because she married a black man and left home against the wishes of her tyrant father.

In my earlier adulthood, I definitely had a chip on my shoulder about my own childhood not being a piece of cake but, when compared with this woman's ordeal, my family was something out of a happy-go-lucky TV sitcom. I think anyone who is in a "my life is so hard" mindset would be well served by reading this book. Sometimes what we need is a healthy dose of someone *else's* reality to remind us that our own is not really all that bad.
September 12, 2008

Good story, weak telling

I wanted to love this book. And I almost did. I was hooked at the beginning, but the further I read, the more discouraged I became. I could not really like any of the people and I was not impressed at all with "Mommy" or at least the portrayal of her. I think the story was good, but the telling of it was weak, unclear and toward the end, rambling. There were several spots where it could have and in my opinion should have, ended. Indeed, I set it aside for over a week with only 50 pages to go and only finished it when I had nothing else to read.
July 21, 2008

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