I'm Down

Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol--telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn't tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried," writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter down.

Unfortunately, Mishna didn't quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn't dance, she couldn't sing, she couldn't double Dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too "black" to fit in with her white classmates.

I'm Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.

Author: Mishna Wolff
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Published: 06/08/2010
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 8.20h x 6.30w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780312379094

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.1
Point Value: 12
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 134496 / I'm Down: A Memoir


Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 06/25/2010 pg. 78

About the Author

Mishna Wolff was one of the 2009 Sundance Screenwriting Lab fellows. She is a humorist and former model, who grew up in Seattle. She lives and writes in New York City.

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