Author & Developmental Editor
Martin Rising: Requiem For a King
by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Author) and Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)
Booktalk: A poetic requiem conveys the final months of Martin Luther King’s life.
Snippet:
These strong, quiet
strikers,
and all who stand by them,
refuse to Roar.
Going out like lambs,
they are ignored.
No better pay.
No benefits.
No fair working conditions.
No progress.
See the book trailer.
Copyright © 2018 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.
Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots
by Margarita Engle (Author) and Rudy Gutierrez (Illustrator)
Booktalk: 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.
Snippet:
Jazz Craze!
Marisela
Age 16
The musicians call us owls
because we’re patriotic girls
who stay up LATE after working all day
so we can DANCE with young sailors
who are on their way
to triumph
or death
on distant
ocean waves.
BONUS! Download the Reading Group Guide
Copyright © 2018 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.