Izzy’s Dilemma by Robert Pais
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeWhat If The Easiest Way To Belong Meant Changing Who You Are?
On the planet Mirron, your eye color determines your place in society.
Topaz are at the top. Emeralds and Sapphires occupy the middle. And Pearls are at the bottom.
Twelve-year-old Izzy Ashford is a Pearl.
Growing up in the wealthy Topaz community of Covington with her loving adoptive parents, Izzy has never thought her eye color should matter. But when bullying and prejudice begin to make her feel like an outsider, she starts to see Mirron’s color system in a very different way.
Then, during a family vacation, a mysterious stranger named Sam makes Izzy an extraordinary offer.
He can change her Pearl eyes to Topaz.
Permanently!
Suddenly, Izzy has a chance to become the person of interest Mirron’s society would accept without question. BUT there is a price.
And Izzy has only one summer to decide whether that’s a price worth paying.
At River Valley Camp, Izzy meets new friends, encounters people from every level of Mirron’s society, and begins to discover that the world she thought she understood may be far more complicated than it seems.
As secrets from the past begin to surface and her choices become harder, Izzy is forced to confront a question that goes far beyond the color of her eyes:
How much of yourself should you change just to be accepted?
Izzy must make a choice.
Change her eyes and finally fit in – or stay true to herself and discover what it really means to belong.
Differences should be celebrated.
One of the reasons why I like reading middle grade fiction so much is that the preteen years are often when kids begin to develop separate identities from their families. Some of the best examples of this genre in my opinion are the ones that explore what this separation means for their characters and give glimpses of the adults they will become in the future, both of which this story did incredibly well. Due to Izzy’s eye color, her adoption could never have been a secret to begin with, but now that she was a preteen the meaning of that difference began to impact her in ways that she had not previously thought about in as much detail. While she still had a lot of maturing to do, I thought the protagonist was already developing into a kind and compassionate young woman who was going to make her world a much better place. Bravo for that!
Judy and Tom’s parenting decisions about how and where they raised Izzy puzzled me. Obviously, this book was intended to be a metaphor for the racism in our own world, but I couldn’t understand why a couple would adopt a child they knew was going to face a lifetime of prejudice and then raise her in such a close-minded community when there were more diverse and welcoming neighbourhoods easily available to them. This was something that could have included some powerful messages about what it truly means to be an ally had more time been spent exploring the difference between what these characters said and how they actually chose to live their lives. As an adult reader, I can make those inferences easily, but I think the intended middle grade audience would have benefited from much deeper discussions on this topic due to how important it is both on Izzy’s world and in our own.
I appreciated how much time was spent exploring how it feels to be part of a minority group. While some negative interactions can definitely be overt and blatantly fueled by prejudice, what can be just as difficult to cope with over the longterm are the little moments where someone says something that could be interpreted in multiple ways or where a group gives the subtle impression that someone is not fully welcomed there. This can be a difficult topic to discuss with kids this age who may or may not have personal experience with it, so I’m glad the author gave so many examples of what these subtle slights can look like. Had the entire book been written this way, I would have happily given it a much higher rating.
Izzy’s Dilemma was thought provoking.
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