Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots Contributor(s): Engle, Margarita (Author), Gutierrez, Rudy (Illustrator) |
|
ISBN: 1534409432 ISBN-13: 9781534409439 Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers OUR PRICE: $16.19 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: May 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Young Adult Nonfiction | Poetry |
Dewey: FIC |
LCCN: 2017024247 |
Lexile Measure: 1300 |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.8" W x 8.5" (0.60 lbs) 192 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Latino |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Engle, Margarita: - Margarita Engle was the 2017--2019 national Young People's Poet Laureate, and received the 2019 NSK Neustadt Prize. She is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including Soaring Earth; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN Literary Award for Young Adult Literature winner. Her verse memoir, Enchanted Air, received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture book Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother's homeland during childhood summers with relatives. She continues to visit Cuba as often as she can. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.Gutierrez, Rudy: - Rudy Gutierrez is an award-winning illustrator whose works have earned him a Pura Belpré Honor, Américas Book Award, Africana Book Award, and a New York Book Award. He was born in the Bronx and now lives in New Jersey. |