Stephen Howze Author: Sharon G. Flake Publisher: Hyperion Year of publication: 2000

 This is the story of a seventh grader named Maleeka Madison who has low self-esteem because of her dark skin color. Thirteen-year-old Maleeka Madison is tall, skinny, and dark-skinned. That's a problem for her, because it's such a problem for everyone else at school, it seems. To make her life easier, Maleeka befriends the toughest girl in school. Only bullies force you to pay more than you’d like, so life for Maleeka just gets harder, until she learns to stand up for herself and love the skin she's in.  The setting of the novel is McClenton Middle School  She does a girl's homework in exchange for borrowing clothes, tries smoking and gets caught, and even goes along with her friends' plan to vandalize Miss Saunders' room.

 Protagonist-Maleeka Madison-A poor, black girl who gets teased harshly at her middle school because of her dark skin color and homemade clothes.  Antagonist- Charlese Jones (Char)- She is a fast talking trouble making girl who is one of Maleeka's top teasers. She lends Maleeka her expensive outfits in exchange for Maleeka doing her homework.

 The conflict is that Maleeka was made fun of how dark her skin is from all of the children in the school.  The conflict can be solved by Maleeka moving another school or she can just endure the pain from the other students

 The twins (Raina and Raise)- Char's "sidekicks" in a way. They agree with everything and go along with everything Char does  John-John- Another one of the people at Maleeka's school who teases her. He made a rap about how dark she was on a class trip. He later reveals to Maleeka that the reason he teases her so much is because when Maleeka first moved to their neighborhood in second grade she didn't want to sit by him, therefore, he assumed she thought she was better than him.

 Human beings are flawed and many times we are judged by our flaws. We can change but we cant change our appearances or habits.  This book is easy to relate to because many people are bullied during school.  The_Skin_I_m_In

 I like this book it is easy to read and it is easy to relate to. It is about a girl that is bullied and her teacher inspires her.