As a high school librarian I'm always on the look out for exemplary new titles for young adults, particularly for boys. Black & White is one I'll be sharing a lot this year. Marcus and Eddie are best friends and a force to be reckoned with on the basketball court. Theirs is a story of racial prejudice, character, friendship, taking responsibility, and fairness. There's a bit of romance in it, too. There is much here for kids to talk about and the book is sure to spark discussion. While the ending is hopeful, it certainly isn't tidy or predictable. Black and White (Speak)
Here's another book, I wanted to read more...more...more! What great messages the author delivered in the story. Volponi speaks of "black and white" issues, but he also goes deep into the human soul and gives guidance on how to live a content, happy life. This book could be a self-help book on dealing with the "big and small" mistakes made in life, change, stress, and growing up!
As a high school teacher-librarian, I will certainly recommend _Black and White_ to my teen readers as a fabulous read.
There are numerous quotes I admire, but my favorite is: [school office speaking to Marcus mother] "I know he's made some mistakes. But that's what adolescents do. Marcus is the type of young man who's going to learn from what he did wrong. He's going to pick himself back up and succeed. And one day, other kids from this neighborhood are going to look up to him for that." p. 131
The book is open-ended at the end. But that's okay and will leave the reader content. There will be ups and downs after the final page and much food for thought in the reader's imagination.
This is a magnificent story, it begin with Eddie Russo (White) and Marcus Brown (Black) running back to their house after they shot Sidney Parker a person they were trying to mug. They were mugging people with White's grandfather .38 caliber and they had robbed two people and accidentally shot the third guy. Then as the story progresses we find out that they had to pay their high school dues and they had their money saved up. However some new Nikes came out and everyone on the team was getting them, the two best stars couldn't be seen without them, could they? They weren't out of style, but they were out of money and desperately needed some money. So then White said "We could rob a few people to get the money and what we get we probably deserved." In the end Black is taking the heat for the chime and white seems like he's going to get off scot-free.
I believe all people of every race can and will like this book. I also believe it will effect the Blacks and White the most. It will touch everyone and give us a reality check on what the world is really like, not the fantasy everybody believes it is. My favorite part was when Black finally got hooked up with Rose (White's little sister). I believe anyone that likes basketball will also like, as basketball has an important role in this book. My question to you the reader is can people of different races really and truly get along? That's for you to decide for yourself, after you read the book.
I know plenty of present and former middle school kids who are so totally over that racial division stuff that they study about in American history and in my wife's English classes, and that people of my generation witnessed and are always telling them about.
Of course, these are all white kids living in an affluent community in the coastal hills of Northern California. Some of them have actually gotten to play in soccer leagues or on school basketball teams against more racially diverse teams in Santa Rosa and elsewhere. But I figure our tenth grader got better acquainted with more Japanese kids over her two week middle school exchange visit to their country than she has gotten to know of black kids in her entire life.
Since reading and reviewing it over the holidays, I've been dying to put together a production of Julius Lester's new, soon-to-be-award winning novel in narrative, DAY OF TEARS, but I know that casting it would probably require more young black talent than we have in Shari's middle school and the nearby high school put together.
Now, "Black and White" have seriously gotten over that race thing for real. They've lived it. Marcus Brown is a black kid from the Projects who lives with his mom and preschool-aged sister. Eddie Russo, the white son of a sanitation worker, lives across town with his parents and teenaged, younger sister Rose. Marcus and Eddie are always together as they have been forever. Ages ago they were nicknamed "Black and White", and it has stuck. They're both starting guards on a Long Island City high school basketball team that is cruising toward the playoffs. College scouts come sit in the bleachers, watch them, and salivate. But that was before IT happened.
"BLACK
"I admit it. I've been scared sh------ lots of times. But I was never as shook as when the gun in Eddie's hand went off. It thundered inside that car like the whole world was coming to an end. I never expected Eddie to pull the trigger, by accident or any other way. I guess that was a big part of it too. In all the time Eddie had that gun, we never shot it off once. It was just for show, so we could get our hands on some quick money. That's all. We never flashed it around in front of our friends or anything. It was just for us to know about.
"I was more scared for that man we shot than anything else. I didn't even know he got clipped in the head until Eddie told me later. The gun went off and I closed my eyes. I shut them so tight, I thought my eyelids would squeeze them right out of their sockets. I only opened them again to find the handle on the door, so I could get out of that car and take off running.
"That damn sound was ringing in my ears. There was no way to outrun that. I couldn't hear the air pumping in and out of my lungs, or the sound of my feet hitting against the concrete. And I didn't know that Eddie wasn't right behind me until I was halfway home, and peeked back over my shoulder. Then I looked back for him again, even though I knew he wasn't there."
So what will happen when the shooting victim ID?s Marcus from yearbook photos? What happens when Marcus comes to face a system of justice that feels like it's based on skin color and the ability to hire an attorney? What happens when Marcus's mom and Eddies parents each stop feeling supportive of their own son's friend-of-another-color? Where does the Black and White friendship go from here?
Author Paul Volponi spent years with adolescents on Rikers Island, teaching them reading and writing. He?s written one heck of a tale about two friends who thought they were cruising in the fast lane, heading for NCAA glory, and thought that differences in skin color was somebody else's problem.
Through this nail-biting story that keeps us waiting to see who is going to to pay the price for the two kids making a bad mistake, BLACK AND WHITE goes beyond the skin deep to reveal some harsh impulses and invisible walls that still exist in America today. - Teen - Racism'
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