Description from Goodreads
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.
My Thoughts on the Book
I got to admit I didn't know of the Zoot Suit Riots during WWII, so I had to look it up after I read Jazz Owls, and it made me a bit pissed really. Now, over to Jazz Owls. What I really enjoyed was how the whole thing was told through poetry and various POV's, and the poetry made the emotions jump off the page as one reads about the experiences with racism, discrimination, hate, and unsafe working conditions. Jazz Owls is in a way an easily accessible and good for both middle schoolers and adults alike.
I honestly wish more people read Jazz Owls by Margarita Engle.
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