Black Ice

In 1971, a 15-year-old black girl from suburban Philadelphia won a scholarship to an elite prep school, St. Paul's in Concord, N.H. Cary here recounts--with cautious affection and ironic humor--the catapulting experience, having returned years later to St. Paul's as a teacher. Drawing a warm portrait of supportive family members, she also establishes the strong qualifications and gifts she brought to the school, at the time newly co-educational. We glimpse the personal resources that sustained her through a demanding curriculum and in the face of latent, lingering racial prejudice. Written with flair, her attractive memoir provides a unique viewpoint, that of student and teacher, mediating a world of educational privilege and providing inspiration for other black students. (Mar.)