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.

Little They Them

A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson
Portland, OR : Limerence Press, Inc., 2018.
1 v. (unpaged) : chiefly ill. ; 18 cm.

This is a helpful little (about 60 pages) graphic novel guide to using non-binary pronouns.  It's especially aimed at the good natured cis folks like me, who want to convey openness, support and respect for non-binary gendered folks, especially those who want to be referred to as the singular "they" or "them." The book also touches on the pronoun "ze" and some of its cases when it's "hir" or "hirself."  But that's getting a bit into details....

The book really is a gentle easing into the use of non-gendered pronouns for people who aren't around those pronouns a lot and may get confused or flustered.  It's also just a book to encourage the frustrated or confused (but supportive) to not worry about mistakes - and instead to open up to the attitude of living and learning.

A Kirkus review did mention that the book has its limits of mainly a white person's view, but it is still a good book to have on hand when someone wants to quickly get up to speed on the basics of the new non-gendered pronouns.  Get it!

     

Like Horses at Rush Hour

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri
Somerville, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2011.
218 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.    

I really got a kick out of this book.  The plot seems so ludicrous that I at first thought, this Neri has one crazy imagination.  I mean a wayward Detroit African-American kid sent by his mom to Philadelphia so he can straighten up with the father he has never known - who just happens to be a skilled horseman/cowboy living in the run down, inner city of Philly.  The thing is, it's based on real-life African-American, urban cowboys who have carried on this city tradition for nearly 100 years.

If you don't believe it, go over to G. Neri's website and brush up on your history - and get ready for a film version of the novel.

The novel is a touching coming of age story, involving the almost-teen Cole who has driven his mom to the edge with his growing misbehavior and bad attitude.  So she packs him in the car at night and takes him to Philadelphia where she literally dumps him with his father who he doesn't even know. After a rough start, the two start to bond and Cole - by working with horses - starts to figure out what the important things in life really are.  One of those values is taking a stand for tradition and culture against the greed of developers. 

There's a lot to recommend this story.  It angles a little young for high-schoolers, but I'll still recommend it, using the unreal situation of horses in the inner city as a selling point.

The Uncivil Dead

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
New York, NY : Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]
451 p. ; 22 cm.

This really is a humdinger of a creative novel for YAs.  It's an alternative history, a thriller, and a zombie novel all rolled into one with a great heroine and lots of subtext (racism, walls to keep outsiders out, political corruption and lies, etc.) Could be right out of today's headlines instead of a few decades after the Civil War.  Oh, and this Civil War didn't end at Appomattox with the defeat of the Confederacy - it came to an uneasy end at Gettysburg when the dead on the battlefield got up and started eating the living.

That grisly twist did end the war and ended slavery (just like the real Civil War) but not racism (just like that real war again!) African Americans instead were freed to become fighters against the shamblers, Justina Ireland's great name for the zombies. That's just part of the story.  The engine of this novel (in addition to the unending hunger of the shamblers, is the resurgent attempts by white supremacists to reassert their power and control in the devastated landscape of  the US.  They achieve this with migration west, deception, corruption, harsh religion, and brutality.  Let's just say that Jane McKeene - the heroine of this tale - isn't just going to sit still and accept this.

I'm not the only one who liked this book.  It has received a lot of critical acclaim.  I'd say it's definitely a recommended read.     

Horsepower

Grand Theft Horse by G. Neri [illus. by Corban Wilkin]
New York : Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc., [2018]
220 p. : chiefly ill. ; 22 cm.

This is a beautiful story of a courageous woman who is a gifted horse trainer and takes a stand against the abusive horse racing industry in California.  The core of the story is the sacrifices she makes and the injustices she endures to uphold her commitment to the decent treatment of a horse under her care.   

The book tells the story of her life, and of how she got entangled with an absolutely horrid lawyer who helped her buy a race horse with exceptional potential, but then wanted her to exploit it for short term profits.  When she defies him, he spends years and gobs of money trying to ruin her.

This graphic novel is really a deep delve into what does it mean to have a meaningful life.  It asks the reader to really consider what is success, what is valuable, what is right and wrong. 

I liked this book a lot, but found it a little hard to get into at first.  I worry that it's beginning might discourage young adult readers, but I will definitely recommend it to those who want something more from their graphic novel than just adventure.     

Touching on Family

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

New York, NY : HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2017]

374 p. ; 22 cm.

At first glance, it might seem surprising that Far From the Tree won the 2017 National Book Award.  In some ways it seems like a typical teen "problem novel" - one about three teens who share the same birth mother, but who have had very different lives since birth, and reconnect in various ways as they try to bond with each other and figure out what family really means.     

But the writing is strong in this novel and - in spite of myself - I found myself tearing up several times throughout the book. The emotional moves in the book are subtly developed and when they reach a climax they are quite convincing.

The novel also draws strength from having both a common thread - the three characters are all children of the same birth mother - and from having really complex dynamics: one of the sisters has just given up a baby of her own, one of the teens has an adoptive family that is experiencing a divorce, and one of the teens never got adopted at all.

Each character grows separately and in interactions with the others as the novel moves through several intense episodes and moves toward a final climax that is surprising and also satisfying.

If you have a student looking for a compelling read about family relationships, this novel is highly recommended.

Fiery Brown

A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery by Albert Marrin
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2014]
244 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Like many of the history non-fiction books published with the high school audience in mind, this book has an appealing layout with lots of great photos, reproductions, etc.  It makes for a readable history.  I also like that the length of these non-fiction books is long enough for a substantive treatment of the topic, but not so exhaustive as to be daunting.

I read this book because I really wanted to learn more about John Brown and his passionate fight against slavery in the US and his willingness to die for the cause. 

Marrin does a good job describing the life of Brown and the back drop of slavery - especially the way in which slavers decided that they had to expand slavery in the US to keep their power.  He also illuminates the way in which Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry pushed the coming Civil War even closer.  But I think the biggest weakness is that Marrin tries to highlight the radical and "terrorist" nature of John Brown's actions (for example his execution of unarmed prisoners in Kansas) without fully illuminating the absolute horrors and terrorism of the slave labor system.  Having read The Half Has Never Been Told, I am aware that the cotton-slavery system that evolved after 1820 was an even more vicious, brutal and horrid system of torture/slavery that what already existed before 1820.  I think it is a good thing that Marrin wants students to really wrestle with the complexities of when or if illegal, violent action is acceptable.  But to do that you have to really be honest about the system that that action was targeting - and I don't think Marrin succeeded in that.

I would still recommend the book since it is a thorough treatment of Brown's life and conveys a lot of the dynamics of the time.