https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te Mark Ferri ORB Q2 en-us 2021-01-12 18:10:49 UTC 2023-02-28 16:04:59 UTC hello@padlet.com fer08384 https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1079947041 2021-01-12 18:17:24 UTC https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1079947041 fer08384 https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1079980395 After Starr and her childhood friend Khalil, both black, leave a party together, they are pulled over by a white police officer, who kills Khalil. The sole witness to the homicide, Starr must testify before a grand jury that will decide whether to indict the cop, and she's terrified, especially as emotions run high. By turns frightened, discouraged, enraged, and impassioned, Starr is authentically adolescent in her reactions. Inhabiting two vastly different spheres—her poor, predominantly black neighborhood, Garden Heights, where gangs are a fact of life, and her rich, mostly white private school—causes strain, and Thomas perceptively illustrates how the personal is political: Starr is disturbed by the racism of her white friend Hailey, who writes Khalil off as a drug dealer, and Starr's father is torn between his desire to support Garden Heights and his need to move his family to a safer environment. The first-person, present-tense narrative is immediate and intense, and the pacing is strong, with Thomas balancing dramatic scenes of violence and protest with moments of reflection. The characterization is slightly uneven; at times, Starr's friends at school feel thinly fleshed out . However, Starr, her family, and the individuals in their neighborhood are achingly real and lovingly crafted. VERDICT Pair this powerful debut with Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's All American Boys to start a conversation on racism, police brutality, and the Black Lives Matter movement.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal --Mahnaz Dar (Reviewed 01/01/2017) (School Library Journal, vol 63, issue 1 , p105)]]> 2021-01-12 18:23:17 UTC https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1079980395 fer08384 https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084415773 "It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black" (Thomas 11) 

]]> 2021-01-13 18:34:07 UTC https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084415773 fer08384 https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084476954 I agree with this review. Although deserved, Starr's private school friends seemed to be written to be "the white and privileged ones" to antagonize them. Because this book is about racism and the systematic oppression of black people, those are not the type of people that should be, or I expected to be put in a good light. I am also glad that at the end, this book still recognizes that racism is a problem bigger than just one person, or one arrest can fix. Angie Thomas displays the correct way to demonstrate a book about racism, centering it around a black person and struggles black people face everyday.]]> 2021-01-13 18:46:01 UTC https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084476954 fer08384 https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084486627 In this quote, Starr refers to the fact how especially white people love things created black people, but will refuse to acknowledge ]]> 2021-01-13 18:47:08 UTC https://padlet.com/fer08384/erx8qpjrbprc09te/wish/1084486627