From 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.
Read for free on Rivetedlit.com on Jan. 6th 2020.
That was great! Each character had their own voice reflecting in their poem entries. Jazz and how each of our main characters stand up for themselves and justice lend themselves well to the free verse form. It's impressive and inspiring how Engle creates so much with what seems like so little.
Also, love all the references at the back, that all appear to come from within the community.
I honestly don't get other reviewers complaints about not getting to know the characters or investing in the plot. Do you really need someone's every thought & feeling spelled out to connect with them? How is love, justice, and identity not a plot to invest in? Ugh, yet all these white world world 2 soldier stories do so well for no reason other than white supremacy & the myth of American exceptionalism.
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6 January, 2020:
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