Jazz owls a novel of the Zoot Suit Riots

Thousands of Navy sailors are pouring into Los Angeles on their way to the front lines of World War II. They are young, scared, and 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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Engle, Margarita (Author)
Other Authors: Gutierrez, Rudy (Illustrator)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2018]
Edition:First edition.
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Summary:Thousands of Navy sailors are pouring into Los Angeles on their way to the front lines of World War II. They are young, scared, and 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 dance with the sailors until the blazing summer night when racial violence leads to murder. Suddenly the restless white sailors are attacking the girls' brothers and boyfriends. The cool, loose zoot suits they wear are supposedly the reason for the violence - but really these boys are viciously beaten and arrested simply because of the color of their skin. In soaring images and searing poems, this is the breathtaking story of what became known as the Zoot Suit Riots as only Margarita Engle could tell it. -- From dust jacket.
Physical Description:179 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Audience:Ages 12 up.
Awards:Américas Award commended title, 2019
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (page 178).
ISBN:9781534409439
1534409432
9781534409446
1534409440
Author Notes:Margarita Engle is a Cuban-American poet and novelist. Her books include The Wild Book, Tropical Secrets, The Firefly Letters, The Lightning Dreamer, When You Wander, Mountain Dog, and Silver People. She has received several awards including the Jane Addams Children's Book Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Américas Award, and the Claudia Lewis Poetry Award for The Surrender Tree and the Pura Belpré Award and the Américas Award for The Poet Slave of Cuba.

(Bowker Author Biography)