A Novel Approach to Diversity

A scholastic fish-out-of-water tale encourages classroom dialogue about diversity, racism, and friendship.

Having spent her childhood in the suburbs of Baltimore, Md., and later teaching for a year in a predominantly black and Latino junior high school in Washington, D.C., young-adult author Pamela Ehrenberg knows what it’s like for a person to navigate an unfamiliar setting. Such experiences provide the backdrop for Ehrenberg’s award-winning novel Ethan, Suspended .

After being suspended from school, 11-year-old Ethan Oppenheimer finds himself plucked from his cozy suburban home in Philadelphia and forced to move to his grandparents' time-warped house in Washington, D.C. There's no cable, no Internet, and dinner is at 4 p.m. Worse, he has to learn the ropes as the only Jewish kid at a black and Latino school characterized by remedial music lessons, economic disparities, and racial tensions.

Teachers can use the novel to introduce their middle and junior high schoolers to themes of diversity, racism, and friendship, says Ehrenberg. Ethan’s experience and subsequent transformation can be a springboard to highlight lessons on tolerance and cultural sensitivity.