Mishna Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. "He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains and a Kangol-telling jokes like Redd Fox, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. You couldn''t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried," writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter down.

Unfortunately, Mishna didn''t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids: she couldn''t dance, she couldn''t sing, she couldn''t double Dutch and she was the worst player on her all-black basketball team. She was shy, uncool, and painfully white. And yet when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was too "black" to fit in with her white classmates.

I''m Down is a hip, hysterical and at the same time beautiful memoir that will have you howling with laughter, recommending it to friends and questioning what it means to be black and white in America.

"This buoyant memoir is rich in detail but never feels over embellished...I''m Down certainly has serious thoughts on its mind (Wolff actually grew up quite poor and hungry), but the tone manages to be light and triumphant because of the hilarious child-goggles Wolff wears while spinning her tales. Rating: A" --Entertainment Weekly

"A friend gave me a copy of the book I''m Down by Mishna Wolff. I laughed out loud from the first page on...A keenly perceptive, hilarious exploration of identity." --Jennifer Beals, Time Magazine

"An authentically funny, truly transcendent work that makes other, sorry-voiced memoirs by a certain more privileged class of writer pale-pun intended-by comparison...Wolff''s focus, and the sweet soul of this terrific book, was on being accepted by her streetwise, wiseass dad, whom she knew loved her-and whom she lo