Tangerine
Edward Bloor (1997)
“A legally blind boy slowly recovers the memory his family buried — that his brother is the one who blinded him.”
Why This Book Matters
Tangerine became one of the most widely assigned middle-school novels of the late 1990s and 2000s, praised for its unflinching treatment of sibling abuse, parental complicity, and disability — subjects that young adult literature had largely avoided or sentimentalized. The novel demonstrated that YA fiction could address family violence, environmental destruction, and institutional racism with the complexity of literary fiction while remaining accessible to twelve-year-olds.
Firsts & Innovations
One of the first widely-read YA novels to portray sibling abuse as systematic rather than incidental — Erik is not a bully who occasionally goes too far but a sociopath enabled by every adult in his life
Pioneered the use of journal format in YA fiction as a narrative device for a character reclaiming his own story from family mythology
One of the first YA novels to link environmental destruction (Florida development) to personal and social dysfunction — the sinkhole as both literal and metaphorical collapse
Cultural Impact
Standard middle-school curriculum text across the United States, particularly in Florida
Frequently used in disability studies and family systems discussions in educational contexts
Cited by educators as an effective entry point for discussing institutional racism and class dynamics with young readers
The sinkhole scene became one of the most recognized moments in contemporary YA literature
Influenced subsequent YA novels addressing family dysfunction, including works by Laurie Halse Anderson and Andrew Smith
Banned & Challenged
Occasionally challenged for violence (Arthur's attack on Luis, the spray-paint incident) and for its unflattering portrayal of suburban family life. Some challenges have come from parents uncomfortable with the novel's depiction of parental complicity in child abuse — which rather proves the novel's point about the cost of not seeing.