The Girl in the Middle: Growing Up Between Black and White, Rich and Poor

Degrassi Junior High star Granofsky reflects on her coming-of-age between “radically different” worlds in this heartfelt and candid debut. Born in 1973 to a white Jewish father and Black mother, Granofsky relates how her family bounced from rural Ohio to California to Canada until her father left her and her mother for life at an Indian ashram, when she was five. On their own, Granofsky and her mother were “stalked by poverty,” until her paternal grandmother began taking Granofsky in on the weekends, immersing her in a world of lavish social clubs and shopping trips. After her father returned in 1983 and found his own place, Granofsky split her time between three households she kept distinct—“I felt the imperative to shift who I was to accommodate the person I was with.” As she reveals, this “code-switching” became her secret weapon when she began acting and, at age 13, was cast in the hit TV series Degrassi Junior High. “It felt... exhilarating and I was getting paid!” While the pacing sometimes sags, her story of finding power in her unique perspective, and later building her own family, is immensely inspiring. “Sometimes I think of my ancestors who... bore the brunt of racism and anti-Semitism,” she writes. “I wonder what they would think of my beautiful Canadian life.” It’s a touching ode to hard-fought happiness. (Apr.)