Patricia Justiniani McReynolds has produced a beautifully written and deeply moving account of her childhood. With crystalline clarity she recalls the pain of a child whose culturally ingenuous immigrant parents unwittingly dared to disobey the ingrained American taboo against inter-racial marriage. It is the child, Patsy, who suffers the stings of prejudice and feels obligated to assume the parental role of helping her Filipino born father and Norwegian-born mother negotiate the shoals of racism. That her parents epitomized in so many ways America's officially articulated values of education, hard work, and primacy of family made the experience of being "almost Americans" even more puzzling and painful to this sensitive and intelligent child. ALMOST AMERICANS is a thoroughly American saga and should resonate with all who are interested in the multicultural richness of our heritage.