I was recently told by a graphic novelist that comic books and graphic novels differ only in how they are marketed, that they are basically the same art form. And thinking back to my youth where during camping trips I…
Category: Economic Justice/Poverty/Immigration
The Upstanders Award Goes to Ghetto Cowboy!
This past weekend, the Fifth Annual Horace Mann Upstanders Book Award was given to G. (Greg) Neri for his middle grade novel Ghetto Cowboy. The ceremony took place at the Wildwood Elementary School in Los Angeles, and along with Neri…
Undun-a novel set to music
The Roots are one of the most creative and socially conscious hip-hop bands today. Every album they release is a work of art, both musically and with lyrics that balance a social message with artistry. With the release of their…
Ellen Levine: A Tribute
Last summer I reviewed the young adult novel In Trouble by Ellen Levine, about two teenage girls in the 1950s who find themselves pregnant and make different decisions about whether to undergo what was then an illegal and dangerous abortion.…
What We Can Agree On: A Review of Trafficked
One of the major appeals of the KONY 2012 campaign to capture brutal Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony by this December is that, in a contentious election year, it is a nonpartisan effort. The poster to advertise the campaign illustrates that…
Dreams to Light the Darkness: A Review of Dreamsleeves
Coleen Murtagh Paratore is best known for her light-hearted middle grade series The Wedding Planner’s Daughter, The Funeral Director’s Son, Mack McGinn, and Sunny Holiday. The review journal I once edited, MultiCultural Review, praised the first Sunny Holiday book for…
An Oldie But Goodie
This week, I had an occasion to talk about a favorite book of mine: Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno, when I was asked, “What is the most provocative book you’ve ever taught?” This book wins hands-down. Set in…
Prison Novels and the New Jim Crow
Last month I attended a local march to call for an investigation of the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a self-appointed neighborhood watch member in suburban Florida. At the Albany march, several of the speakers mentioned the bestselling…
A Classic for a New Generation: A Review of Nicholasa Mohr’s Nilda
For several decades, Arte Público Press and its children’s imprint Piñata Books has published new work by Latino and Latin American authors in English and Spanish and brought classic titles back into print. When Nicholasa Mohr’s young adult novel Nilda…
Belonging to the Land–a review of Far From Home by Na’ima B Robert
I grew up in the Southwestern Desert of the United States, the Chihuahua Desert, the driest desert of North America. I once wrote an essay about how the land shapes the people there—only survivors are left, I wrote, but we…