14. The Jacket - Andrew Clements

Illustrated by McDavid Henderson
Scholastic, 2002
92 pgs, 6 chapters
4.1/640L/Q
Rating: 4
Short

Phil, a white boy, sees Daniel, an African American boy, wearing what he thinks is his brother's jacket. This starts a chain of events that gets Phil thinking about prejudice - convincing himself, to his dismay, that he himself is prejudice. He discusses it with his mother, thinks about it a lot, discovers that his dad is a bigot, and finally puts things right with Daniel - almost becoming friends.

There's a list of discussion questions at the end, and my fourth grade lit. circle group had a very healthy discussion around the story.

There are 19 full-page black and white pencil-drawn illustrations that could also be used as discussion starters - a nice addition to the story, which is a very quick read, but meaty.