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Publisher: Avon Trade / HarperCollins
Release Date: 2004
ISBN: 0060936452
Awards:  
Format Reviewed: Trade Paperback
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Genre:   Fiction-General
Reviewed: 2004
Reviewer: Jen Oliver
Reviewer Notes:  African-American characters
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Schooling Carmen  
By Kathleen Cross

     Meet Carmen DuPre. An African-American female who knows that she is good-looking and so does everyone around her. Carmen is a guidance counselor in one of the worst schools in her district. In Schooling Carmen, Carmen is faced with a life altering decision and goes through a lot of soul searching to determine what she is going to do. Can she continue to do her job? Will she be forced to deal with the loss of her beauty? Will she realize that beauty is also on the inside of someone?

     In the beginning, Carmen's attitude about herself is beyond annoying. Kathleen Cross does a fantastic job of showing how much beauty and being beautiful is important to Carmen. Luckily Carmen has been forced to deal with a medical problem and learns what is really important in life and that beauty is not always necessarily it. Ms. Cross does a great job in showing how Carmen faces adversary and how the support characters can be so important to an influential story. What happens to Carmen can happen to anyone and Ms. Cross shows how one should not always take certain things for granted and look on the inside of people, not just the outside.