Last week I had the opportunity to meet a wonderful author at the Library Materials Fair at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. His name is Paul Volponi and he was visiting because two of his books, Riker's High and Black and White, were selected as part of the Silicon Valley Reads program for students. The theme for this year's Silicon Valley Reads is 'And Justice for All.' Mr. Volponi gave a very interesting talk about what inspired him to write these two books. He spoke of how he grew up in New York near Riker's Island and spent 6 years of his young adult life teaching english to high school age inmates in the jail. He spoke of how he witnessed many injustices during his tenure there.
I purchased 2 copies of Black and White for our library and immediately read one of them myself. The story is about two high school seniors, one black, one white, who are best friends. They are teammates on the school basketball team and both are being scouted for college scholarships. They are good boys but they are also economically disadvantaged, which leads them to make a very poor choice that lands them in deep trouble. But they don't end up in the same place in the end.
This book is full of emotion. I felt like I was right there with these boys as they navigated the consequences of their actions. The story is also very thought provoking, as race seems to affect the different outcomes for each boy. This would be a great book to launch discussions about some very important issues facing our youth today. I highly recommend it.
I purchased 2 copies of Black and White for our library and immediately read one of them myself. The story is about two high school seniors, one black, one white, who are best friends. They are teammates on the school basketball team and both are being scouted for college scholarships. They are good boys but they are also economically disadvantaged, which leads them to make a very poor choice that lands them in deep trouble. But they don't end up in the same place in the end.
This book is full of emotion. I felt like I was right there with these boys as they navigated the consequences of their actions. The story is also very thought provoking, as race seems to affect the different outcomes for each boy. This would be a great book to launch discussions about some very important issues facing our youth today. I highly recommend it.