Almost Out of the Cage

A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Los Angeles : Hyperion, 2017.
310 p. ; 21 cm.

There are a lot of good things to say about A List of Cages.  It tells a good story - a likeable kid, Adam, who reconnects with, and befriends, a younger marginalized kid (Julian, who was briefly his foster brother) and eventually helps save him from the terrible cruelties of an uncle who adopted him. 

Roe unravels the story in chapters alternately told from one of the two main characters perspectives. 

What I liked about the book are its portrayals of the difficult world of high school - especially for a student struggling with social and academic challenges.  It does this without the cardboard villains of bullies and horrid teachers that often people such novels.  Instead several characters are a times unlikeable, while not being terrible people.  I also like that even Adam, the hero of the novel, struggles with his own behavioral issues and emotional ups and downs. 

I also like that this novel deals with some pretty outrageous and terrible child abuse, but feels way less heartfelt than the supposedly true Child Called It books.  Ultimately though, the severity of the abuse is, I think, its undoing.  The novel ends with a far too rapid, and too rosy resolution of the plot.  Despite this, I still would suggest it to a student since its overall arc is one of compassion, love and the healing power of kindness and friendship.

The Whole Nine Yards

Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett
Chicago, Ill. : Haymarket Books, 2018.
xxxviii, 220 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.

Seattle Seahawks defensive star (until 2018), Michael Bennett, has a lot to say about injustices in the United States in this remarkable book from Haymarket Books.

It is a great read, revealing Bennett's passion for social justice - especially around issues of racism and police violence.  But Bennett is not a single issue crusader; he is also a feminist, food justice activist and workers' rights advocate. 

Though called Things that Make White People Uncomfortable, the first half of the book could as easily have been called Things to Make Football Fans Uncomfortable as he exposes the heartless, predatory "business" of college football and the tough exploitation to be found in the actual business of professional football.

Whatever you end up thinking of the positions that Bennett takes on issues, you have to admire him as a man of integrity and heart.  I would definitely recommend his book.

Bloody Chicago

A Few Drops of Red: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield

Boston : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2018]

198 p. : ill., map ; 27 cm. 

Books like this make me glad (and proud) to be a young adult librarian.  This is great book of history in that it is accessible, compelling, and succinct without simplifying the complicated forces of labor, war, immigration, race and economics that led to murderous attacks on African Americans in Chicago in 1919.      

Hartfield's book takes the reader into the cauldron of race relations and economic warfare that was Chicago at the turn of the century.   The city was the slaughterhouse/meat packing center of the world, a major destination for European immigrants, and was rife with robber baron exploitation (for this book, especially Gustavus Swift).  The owners of the meat industry sought to crush any worker attempts at unionization and used any differences they could to divide workers - skilled vs. unskilled, Polish v. Irish, and of course - white vs. black.  When they needed strikebreakers, they brought in African American workers under guard - a move that further inflamed racial hatreds and tensions especially in the breaking of a strike in 1904.  

With the onset of WWI and labor shortages, the draw for southern African Americans led to mass migrations of African Americans to Chicago.  The jobs were there, but housing was strictly limited to the boundaries of "The Black Belt" and conditions became overcrowded and poorly maintained.  Then when WWI ended, returning white workers were given the industrial jobs and the blacks were fired.
It was a powder keg waiting to explode and the spark came on a hot, hot day in July 1919, at the lakefront when an African American teen was killed by a white man and nothing was done about it. The violence lasted days and only ended with the intervention of national guard troops.
This is definitely a book to recommend for history buffs, and especially local Illinois history buffs.

Ground Zero

Hiroshima by John Hersey
New York : Vintage Books, 1989, c1985.
152 p. ; 18 cm.

I had the good fortune of going to Japan this summer, part of the motivation was knowing a couple from the US who are running the World Friendship Center in Hiroshima.  They suggested reading Hersey's book - which is available online for free at the New Yorker where it was first published in 1946.

I had read the book long ago and was impressed with what a powerful and important book it is.  It tells the story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by weaving together the stories of survivors who Hersey interviewed shortly after the bombing.  It is a terrifying retelling of the savage effects of the US bomb and on the strange and random ways that decided who survived and who did not.

Though it was written over seventy years ago, it has immediacy still.  For anyone interested in discovering what it was like to be in the Hiroshima bombing, this remains a powerful testament.

Is the Bar Half-Low or Half-High?

Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong
New York : Anchor Books, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2015.
1st Anchor Bks. Ed., September 2015.
518 p. ; 21 cm.

This book took me longer to read than I would have liked, and it is book that would be better to read in a few long sittings instead of over many short readings as I have done.  That being said, it is quite a read and worth spending some time with.

Reviewers have commented on the breadth of coverage and expertise of Armstrong - and those are impressive.  I think one of the most interesting things is my sense that Armstrong wanted to write a book debunking the idea that religion - in and of itself - has added to the severity of human violence.  I think she does a pretty good job of showing how in the place of religion, other secular ideologies (might one say idolatries?) such as rabid nationalism have proven equal to any of the barbarities committed with the sanction of religion. She also notes how within the major religions there have been tendencies that have sought to address and oppose systemic violence.  However,  I found it striking that in redeeming religion from the burden of being especially at fault for violence, her book in some ways indicts religion as being no better than any human/secular ideas and institutions.  Given that religion lays claim to being connected to power(s) far beyond those of mere human creations, it really is scandalous that religion's relation to violence has been no better than that of many human institutions. 

In essence religion comes out seeming like just another factor or tool in human struggles to amass power versus human resistance to oppressions by the powerful. At times, virtually all religions have been a force for decency and progress, while at other times they have joined and reinforced the most repressive and regressive policies of the powerful.
     

Made in Mexico - ¡Si!

Photographic: the life of Graciela Iturbide by Isabel Quintero + Zeke Peña
Los Angeles : The J. Paul Getty Museum, [2018]
95 p. : chiefly ill. ; 24 cm.

What a great little book! I love that this introduction to the photography of Graciela Iturbide is published by the Getty Museum.  Using the medium of the graphic novel (along with inserted actual photos by Iturbide - such as this phenomenal one of a woman with iguanas on her head) is a brilliant way to introduce a visual artist. 

I also appreciate the writing of this book.  The movement of the narrative is both informative and clear, but also dreamy and poetic. Take for instance this passage from page 18 - where Iturbide has taken her first photo while on a plane:

I become a bird in the heavens
and am filled with birds.
The camera awakens wings.
The wings give me new eyes.
And I will never stop flying.

It is also great that a book celebrates a living artist - a woman artist, and a Mexican artist, too! Wonderful!

Thumbs Up All the Way Down

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
New York : Atheneum, [2017]
306 p. ; 22 cm.

I'm a fan of Jason Reynolds, especially his When I was the Greatest, and somewhat of his foray into superhero fiction; this work did not disappoint.  I wasn't sure I'd like his novel in verse; when that genre fails, it reads like mediocre prose chopped into lines.  Instead, in this novel the poetry works.  The poems help to enhance the ghostly narrative of the work (the main character is visited by ghosts of friends and family who have been killed by guns), and Reynolds uses a lot of assonance, consonance and internal rhymes to keep the language snapping and tight.

The movement of Reynolds' story is also creative and satisfying.  Will, a young man is on his way to avenge the shooting/killing of his dearly loved older brother, Shawn.  Taking the elevator down from the 7th floor,  he is visited at each floor by the ghosts of various people he's known who have been shot.  These ghosts offer insights, challenges and experience to Will.

The novel manages to be moving, thought-provoking, and interesting.  It also doesn't end wrapped up and tidy.  I would definitely recommend this book.