Born In Sin - Hardcover

Author Evelyn Coleman, best known for writing children's books and adult thrillers, takes on teen fiction with Born in Sin. Living in a housing project with drug dealers as neighbors, 14-year-old Keisha is determined not to let her future be dictated by her meager circumstances. A straight-A student, she confidently applies for an advanced placement summer program. But her dream is derailed when school administrators decide that instead of following the college track, Keisha should attend a summer program for at-risk teens. Infuriated, Keisha refuses to go along at first, (in a memorable opening scene, she snatches the wig off the head of the offending principal) but then, through that program, she discovers a natural aptitude for swimming. Encouraged by a kindly coach, she begins to train for the Olympics. But family problems and a nearly fatal quarrel with a local drug lord coincide to undermine her confidence again. Will Keisha ever be able to overcome the "sin of poverty" and become the winner she knows she is inside?

Despite some politically correct, almost caricatured characters, (the white lawyer in charge of the program informs Keisha's mother with utmost sincerity, "I am aware of the idea that because your roots are in Africa, you may not see time in a linear fashion as we do"), Keisha is an engaging, bighearted heroine who teens will cheer for. This novel is a good suggestion for those older adolescent readers who have enjoyed E.R. Frank's Life is Funny and Virginia Euwer Wolff's True Believer. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

Evelyn Coleman is the author of several books for young readers, among them To Be a Drum; White Socks Only; and The Riches of Oseola McCarty, a Smithsonian Notable Book and a Carter G. Woodson Honor Book for 1999. A frequent lecturer and workshop leader in schools and churches, she was the first African-American writer to win a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship for fiction.

Ms. Coleman lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia, where she recently received a Mayor's fellowship for achievement in children's literature.