THE WORLD OF DAUGHTER MCGUIRE

Racial and ethnic identity are untangled and rewoven by one Daughter McGuire, 11, who—with her mother and younger brothers- -has moved next door to her grandparents in Washington, D.C., while her father has run off to Colorado to write a book. When her teacher assigns a family heritage project, Daughter examines how past and present, similarities and differences determine who a person is. Discussions with her friends and three living grandparents lead her to conclude that she is African-Italian- Irish-Jewish-Russian-American; however, that identity brings up new questions. Is she nothing because she's so mixed? Is she a ``zebra'' because she's both black and white? Mulling this over with her father, whose reappearance is confusing family life, she wonders which side she'd be on if there were a war between races and decides she really wants to live according to her own conscience. After witnessing the humiliation of an enemy from the Avengers gang for being the very thing he has ostracized her for (i.e., of mixed parentage), she gets a chance to test her conscience. There's some oversimplification here, and some omissions (Did Daughter never ask about her name's origin before? What does her dark-skinned mother have to say about the identity question?). Yet Wyeth is to be commended for taking on a big subject and providing means for one individual to formulate a satisfying answer. (Fiction. 9-12)