Skin Deep

Ruby (Miriam's Well) examines the nature of hatred in this often heavy-handed story about a teen who becomes a neo-Nazi skinhead. Dan Penner grows quickly embittered after moving to Boulder, Colo., despite a romance with fellow high school senior Laurel Grady. First, he loses a well-earned position on the school swim team because the coach has to reserve spots for the ``my-norities'' (""`These days,' Coach said with a chuckle, `every team's gotta look like the goddam United Nations'""); next, he can't get a job because local business owners say they can't hire any more whites (``Sorry, son. I'm only hiring WOG's... Worthy Oriental Gentlemen''). When Dan interrupts two skinheads bashing an Iranian clerk at a convenience store, he is taken in by them and begins to feel that they are his new family. Dan himself is charged with the beating and slips deeper and deeper into the skinhead society; meanwhile Laurel (whose family includes two adopted minority children) finds herself facing many questions about love, freedom, and standing up for her beliefs. The conflicts heat up rapidly, and the ending is satisfying without offering easy answers. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)