Schooled

Dear Martin by Nic Stone
New York : Crown, 2017
210 p. ; 22 cm.

Nic Stone has written a really interesting book that picks up on many of the racial issues that are roiling US society today - such as white privilege, racist police violence, profiling, criminal justice, equity, and income inequality. And she manages to do it with a really likable, but complex teen named Justyce who is on scholarship at a prestigious boarding school where the students are predominately white.   

Though being a stand-out student, Justyce - doing nothing wrong - finds himself being roughly arrested (and threatened) by police.  This experience leads him down a path of questioning and introspection (chronicled in his journal/letters to MLK - the dear Martin of the title). 

There is a lot of wrestling with how to fit in, how to advocate for yourself and pride in racial identity, and a nice (and racially complex) love story thrown in for good measure.  The plot takes a dramatic turn and I don't want to spoil that for you, but it is the heart of the novel's conflict. 

This book - like The Hate U Give - is a good book to recommend for students interested in thinking about issues around Black Lives Matter and would be a good discussion starter.  Stone's strength is developing complex characters and she's not bad a spinning out a good plot, too.

I would recommend this novel.
   

Touching on Painful

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
New York : Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc., [2017]
167 p. : chiefly ill. ; 23 cm.

I'm not sure what I expected when I picked this up to read it, but it really hit me emotionally.  It's the story of a promising young high school student who is murdered by a department store security guard.  The guard is a police officer, too, and the student is African American - and so the story jumps right into the sad, terrible and ongoing narrative of law enforcement killing unarmed Black people.

I think the emotional power comes from the way this powerful graphic novel introduces us to the victim, first as a lively, smart sensitive young man who is an engaged student, a working bike messenger and an amateur historian of Harlem.  After he is killed while shopping for a suit we travel along with his ghost that joins up with other victims of police violence. He travels a ghost train with these victims as they revisit the past and as he visits people he loves in the present.

It takes a little getting used to the ghostly shifts, but once you do the story really hits home.  One of the most powerful and unexpected aspects of this story is the sharp light it throws on government and complicit media as they work to smear the reputation of the victim and burnish the reputation of the perpetrator. 

This graphic novel succeeds as a tale of injustice and as a history lesson of previous police violence cases. The ending of the book features a helpful list of the names, ages and locations of previous victims and short biographies of the victims featured in the book.

Love This Hate

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]
444 p. ; 22 cm.   

It is hard to imagine a better novel being written for young adults on the topic of police killings of unarmed black people.  Thomas has a remarkable gift for dialogue and characterization that pulls the reader into the world of her main character, Starr, a black high school student who is with her friend when he is pulled over and killed by a police officer.

Starr straddles many worlds - lives in a struggling, black section of town but goes to an exclusive mostly white school, has a dad who has done time in prison and a mom who is a successful professional, sees the harsh and lethal behavior of the police toward black people, but has a dear relative who is a cop.  With such a character, Thomas is able to create a work that has hooks for all kinds of readers, and allows conflicting viewpoints to get a hearing.  It's really quite an accomplishment.  Additionally, with a story that is really dramatic and interesting and characters who are fascinating, you can see why this is such a popular novel.

Since police killings of unarmed citizens and police brutality continue to make headlines, I imagine that The Hate U Give will be in demand for a long time.

The only critiques I have of the book are that it gets a bit complicated as far a characters go - there are a dizzying array of friends, relatives and acquaintances and secondary characters to keep up with.  Lastly there are a few scenes - especially with Starr's father - where his dialogue feels staged for the sole purpose of detailing the politics and ideals of the black power movement.  But those are minor criticisms.  Mainly I was really pleased with this book.

Recommended?  Definitely!