THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT

Name: THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT
Author: Peggy J. Parks
ISBN: 978-1-68282-285-2

by Peggy J. Parks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2017

This fails to live up to the vibrancy, rootedness, and vision of the Black Lives Matter movement, quelling the flames for...

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Parks attempts an objective, both-sides-equally-matter approach to a social movement that has been built on the overwhelming ruins of this approach to American history.

Although the title suggests an introduction to the Black Lives Matter movement, it is instead a journalistic history of it in the context of recent police-brutality incidents. It attempts to condense a generational call to action rooted in 13 future-forward principles into a linear-progress narrative that culminates in how police departments and the U.S. government have made liminal changes in what amounts to historic legacies of deadly oppression. Quoting heavily from media coverage of the movement, the author herself takes a standoffish approach to the fact of racism in the United States, hesitating to fully step into the representative voice of the movement that gives the book its title. Concluding with the power of community-policing initiatives and the hope of new technological equipment is far from the aims of the structural transformation that the Black Lives Matter founders hope to achieve, instead reinforcing the idea that activists and government entities can work together to restore a semblance of order and symbolic illusions of safety.

This fails to live up to the vibrancy, rootedness, and vision of the Black Lives Matter movement, quelling the flames for young readers instead of inviting them on an unfinished road to freedom. (source notes, further research, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-68282-285-2

Page Count: 80

Publisher: ReferencePoint Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2017

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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ENDANGERED

From the Ape Quartet series , Vol. 1

by Eliot Schrefer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2012

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Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo.

On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage
of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. The lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers.

Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-545-16576-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ANIMALS | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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THE BRIGHTNESS BETWEEN US
by Eliot Schrefer

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CHARMING YOUNG MAN
by Eliot Schrefer

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QUEER DUCKS (AND OTHER ANIMALS)
by Eliot Schrefer ; illustrated by Jules Zuckerberg

A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

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A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

REVISED AND UPDATED

by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 3, 2023

A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works.

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A new edition of late author Zinn’s 2007 work, which was adapted for young readers by Stefoff and based on Zinn’s groundbreaking 1980 original for adults.

This updated version, also adapted by Stefoff, a writer for children and teens, contains new material by journalist Morales. The work opens with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and concludes with a chapter by Morales on social and political issues from 2006 through the election of President Joe Biden seen through the lens of Latinx identity. Zinn’s work famously takes a radically different perspective from that of most mainstream history books, viewing conflicts as driven by rich people taking advantage of poorer ones. Zinn professed his own point of view as being “critical of war, racism, and economic injustice,” an approach that felt fresh among popular works of the time. Unfortunately, despite upgrades that include Morales’ perspective, “a couple of insights into Native American history,” and “a look at the Asian American activism that flourished alongside other social movements in the 1960s and 1970s,” the book feels dated. It entirely lacks footnotes, endnotes, or references, so readers cannot verify facts or further investigate material, and the black-and-white images lack credits. Although the work seeks to be inclusive, readers may wonder about the omission of many subjects relating to race, gender, and sexuality, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Indian boarding schools, the Tulsa Race Massacre, Loving v. Virginia, the Stonewall Uprising, Roe v. Wade, Title IX, the AIDS crisis, and the struggle for marriage equality.

A refreshed version of a classic that doesn’t hold up to more recent works. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-16)