Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots
Illustrator
Rudy Gutierrez
Publisher
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Year
2018
ISBN
9781534409439
Pages
179 pages
Genre
historical
Format
novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
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.
Grade Level
6-8; 9-12
Lexile Measure
1300L
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Racial Diversity; Military families; Race discrimination; racism; prejudice;segregation; marginalized group of people; brother in the military
Main Character
male child; female teenager; male teenager
Race/Ethnicities
Mexican
Awards
Choices, 2019 Fiction Young Adult
Notable Children's Books, 2019 Older Readers
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2019 Grades 9-12
Keywords
poetry; 1940s; police brutality; war; mexican; segregation; white privilege
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Engle, Margarita, "Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots" (2018). Diverse Families. 2148.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/2148