Hardcover, 192 pages
Release Date: May 8, 2018Published by: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Read from: June 24, 2018Stand-aloneSource: LibraryTW: Racism
For fans of: Historical Fiction, Verse, POC, YA, Realistic FictionFrom the Young People’s Poet Laureate Margarita Engle comes a searing novel in verse about the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943.
Thousands of young Navy sailors are pouring into Los Angeles on their way to the front lines of World War II. They are teenagers, scared, longing to feel alive before they have to face the horrors of battle. Hot jazz music spiced with cool salsa rhythms calls them to dance with the local Mexican American girls, who jitterbug all night before working all day in the canneries. Proud to do their part for the war effort, these Jazz Owl girls are happy to dance with the sailors—until the blazing summer night when racial violence leads to murder.
Suddenly the young white sailors are attacking these girls’ brothers and boyfriends. The cool, loose zoot suits they wear are supposedly the reason for the violence—when in reality these boys are viciously beaten and arrested simply because of the color of their skin.
In soaring images and powerful poems, this is the breathtaking story of what became known as the Zoot Suit Riots as only Margarita Engle could tell it.
*MY THOUGHTS*
The first thing that caught my eye about this one was the cover. And then I found out it was historical fiction AND in verse and I almost changed my mind. Y’all KNOW both of those are not my forte. But this one really ended up working for me.
Navy sailors are coming from everywhere to L.A. to wait for the next ship out during WWII. To pass the time, some soldiers have began dancing to a new style of music, called jazz music. The soldiers that the girls have been dancing with are called Jazz Owls. Unfortunately, although they are dancing with the girls, they have started beating up their husbands and brothers and friends, because their skin color is different.
The number one thing about this one I liked was the fact that I learned something without the book being too preachy. The main reason I don’t like historical fiction is it alwys feels like a history lesson and not so much a story. This one did not feel that way at all.
I always really loved Engle’s writing style. I felt all the pain and sadness in each of the character’s poems. It’s not normal that I get that attached to a novel told in verse, but I did with this one. I got lost in the pages and ended up finishing it in one day. It’s about a tough subject, but it is told in such a great way.
This one wasn’t one that I was expecting to read and love, so anyone that’s second-guessing it, still give it a try! There is something about the lush world, the deep emotions of the characters, and amazing history lesson, that readers will not get enough of. Margarita Engle has a way of hooking her readers, no matter what their preference in books is.
Overall, I give this
