I’ve loved books about boarding schools since I was a child who romanticized the idea of living away from home with a school full of friends, but as I’ve grown older I’ve become much more interested in what’s hiding beneath the polished surface image of boarding schools. Kendra James was the first Black American legacy student at Taft, a private boarding school in Connecticut, so her perspective on privilege (including her own) was totally fascinating in its layers. I so appreciated the thoughtful and deeply candid telling of her experience at Taft.
Admissions by Kendra James, (List Price: $29.00, Grand Central Publishing, 9781538753484, January 2022)
Reviewed by Kate Storhoff, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina