Author: Lenora Chu
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062367870
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ Pick In the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and education When students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
Little Soldiers
Author: Lenora Chu
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062367870
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ Pick In the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and education When students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062367870
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice; Real Simple Best of the Month; Library Journal Editors’ Pick In the spirit of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Bringing up Bébé, and The Smartest Kids in the World, a hard-hitting exploration of China’s widely acclaimed yet insular education system that raises important questions for the future of American parenting and education When students in Shanghai rose to the top of international rankings in 2009, Americans feared that they were being "out-educated" by the rising super power. An American journalist of Chinese descent raising a young family in Shanghai, Lenora Chu noticed how well-behaved Chinese children were compared to her boisterous toddler. How did the Chinese create their academic super-achievers? Would their little boy benefit from Chinese school? Chu and her husband decided to enroll three-year-old Rainer in China’s state-run public school system. The results were positive—her son quickly settled down, became fluent in Mandarin, and enjoyed his friends—but she also began to notice troubling new behaviors. Wondering what was happening behind closed classroom doors, she embarked on an exploratory journey, interviewing Chinese parents, teachers, and education professors, and following students at all stages of their education. What she discovered is a military-like education system driven by high-stakes testing, with teachers posting rankings in public, using bribes to reward students who comply, and shaming to isolate those who do not. At the same time, she uncovered a years-long desire by government to alleviate its students’ crushing academic burden and make education friendlier for all. The more she learns, the more she wonders: Are Chinese children—and her son—paying too high a price for their obedience and the promise of future academic prowess? Is there a way to appropriate the excellence of the system but dispense with the bad? What, if anything, could Westerners learn from China’s education journey? Chu’s eye-opening investigation challenges our assumptions and asks us to consider the true value and purpose of education.
Six-Legged Soldiers
Author: Jeffrey A. Lockwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199733538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Examines how insects have been used as weapons in wartime conflicts throughout history, presenting as examples how scorpions were used in Roman times and hornets nests were used during the MIddle Ages in siege warfare and how insects have been used in Vietnam, China, and Korea.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199733538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
Examines how insects have been used as weapons in wartime conflicts throughout history, presenting as examples how scorpions were used in Roman times and hornets nests were used during the MIddle Ages in siege warfare and how insects have been used in Vietnam, China, and Korea.
Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief
Author: Katrina Nannestad
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 1460713362
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Award-winning writer Katrina Nannestad transports us to Russia and the Great Patriotic War and into the life of Sasha, a soldier at only six years old ... Wood splinters and Mama screams and the nearest soldier seizes her roughly by the arms. My sister pokes her bruised face out from beneath the table and shouts, 'Run, Sasha! Run!' So I run. I run like a rabbit. It's spring, 1942. The sky is blue, the air is warm and sweet with the scent of flowers. And then everything is gone. The flowers, the proud geese, the pretty wooden houses, the friendly neighbours. Only Sasha remains. But one small boy, alone in war-torn Russia, cannot survive. One small boy without a family cannot survive. One small boy without his home cannot survive. What that small boy needs is an army. From the award-winning author of We Are Wolves comes the story of a young boy who becomes a soldier at six, fighting in the only way he can -- with love. But is love ever enough when the world is at war? AWARDS Honour Book - CBCA 2022 (Younger Reader's Book of the Year) Winner - The Indie Book Awards 2022 (Children's) Winner - ABA Bookseller's Choice 2022 Book of the Year Awards (Children's) Winner - ARA Historical Novel Award 2022 (Children and Young Adult) Shortlisted - ABIAs 2022 (Book of the Year for Younger Children)
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 1460713362
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Award-winning writer Katrina Nannestad transports us to Russia and the Great Patriotic War and into the life of Sasha, a soldier at only six years old ... Wood splinters and Mama screams and the nearest soldier seizes her roughly by the arms. My sister pokes her bruised face out from beneath the table and shouts, 'Run, Sasha! Run!' So I run. I run like a rabbit. It's spring, 1942. The sky is blue, the air is warm and sweet with the scent of flowers. And then everything is gone. The flowers, the proud geese, the pretty wooden houses, the friendly neighbours. Only Sasha remains. But one small boy, alone in war-torn Russia, cannot survive. One small boy without a family cannot survive. One small boy without his home cannot survive. What that small boy needs is an army. From the award-winning author of We Are Wolves comes the story of a young boy who becomes a soldier at six, fighting in the only way he can -- with love. But is love ever enough when the world is at war? AWARDS Honour Book - CBCA 2022 (Younger Reader's Book of the Year) Winner - The Indie Book Awards 2022 (Children's) Winner - ABA Bookseller's Choice 2022 Book of the Year Awards (Children's) Winner - ARA Historical Novel Award 2022 (Children and Young Adult) Shortlisted - ABIAs 2022 (Book of the Year for Younger Children)
Soldiers of a Different Cloth
Author: John F. Wukovits
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268103968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
“This riveting account of the heroic contributions of thirty-five chaplains and missionaries during World War II is nearly impossible to put down . . . inspiring.” —The Boston Pilot In Soldiers of a Different Cloth, New York Times-bestselling author and military historian John Wukovits tells the inspiring story of thirty-five chaplains and missionaries who, while garnering little acclaim, performed extraordinary feats of courage and persistence during World War II. Ranging in age from twenty-two to fifty-three, these University of Notre Dame priests and nuns were counselor, friend, parent, and older sibling to the young soldiers they served. These chaplains experienced the horrors of the Death March in the Philippines and the filthy holds of the infamous Hell Ships. They dangled from a parachute while descending toward German fire at Normandy and shivered in Belgium’s frigid snows during the Battle of the Bulge. They languished in German and Japanese prison camps, and stood speechless at Dachau. Based on a vast collection of letters, papers, records, and photographs in the archives of the University of Notre Dame, as well as other contemporary sources, Wukovits brings to life these nearly forgotten heroes who served wherever duty sent them and wherever the war dictated. Wukovits intertwines their stories on the battlefronts with their memories of Notre Dame. In their letters to their superior in South Bend, Indiana, they often asked about campus, the Grotto, and the football team. Soldiers of a Different Cloth will fascinate and engage all readers interested in the history of World War II and alumni, friends, and fans of the Fighting Irish.
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268103968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414
Book Description
“This riveting account of the heroic contributions of thirty-five chaplains and missionaries during World War II is nearly impossible to put down . . . inspiring.” —The Boston Pilot In Soldiers of a Different Cloth, New York Times-bestselling author and military historian John Wukovits tells the inspiring story of thirty-five chaplains and missionaries who, while garnering little acclaim, performed extraordinary feats of courage and persistence during World War II. Ranging in age from twenty-two to fifty-three, these University of Notre Dame priests and nuns were counselor, friend, parent, and older sibling to the young soldiers they served. These chaplains experienced the horrors of the Death March in the Philippines and the filthy holds of the infamous Hell Ships. They dangled from a parachute while descending toward German fire at Normandy and shivered in Belgium’s frigid snows during the Battle of the Bulge. They languished in German and Japanese prison camps, and stood speechless at Dachau. Based on a vast collection of letters, papers, records, and photographs in the archives of the University of Notre Dame, as well as other contemporary sources, Wukovits brings to life these nearly forgotten heroes who served wherever duty sent them and wherever the war dictated. Wukovits intertwines their stories on the battlefronts with their memories of Notre Dame. In their letters to their superior in South Bend, Indiana, they often asked about campus, the Grotto, and the football team. Soldiers of a Different Cloth will fascinate and engage all readers interested in the history of World War II and alumni, friends, and fans of the Fighting Irish.
We Are Wolves
Author: Katrina Nannestad
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1665904240
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This haunting, heart-stopping middle grade novel follows three of the Wolfskinder, German children left to fend for themselves in the final days of World War II, as they struggle to hold onto themselves and each other while surviving in the wild. Sometimes it’s good to be wild. Sometimes, you have to be. When the Russian Army marches into East Prussia at the end of World War II, the Wolf family must flee. Being caught by the Russians or Americans would be the end for them. Liesl, Otto, and baby Mia’s father has already been captured, and they get separated from their mother in a blizzard after only a few days on the run. Liesl promised Mama that she’d keep her brother and sister safe, no matter what. They’ll forage in the forests if they have to. Little do they know at the start that there are hundreds of other parentless children doing the same thing. And they far too quickly learn that, sometimes, to survive, you have to do bad things. Dangerous things. Wild things. Sometimes you must become a wolf.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1665904240
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This haunting, heart-stopping middle grade novel follows three of the Wolfskinder, German children left to fend for themselves in the final days of World War II, as they struggle to hold onto themselves and each other while surviving in the wild. Sometimes it’s good to be wild. Sometimes, you have to be. When the Russian Army marches into East Prussia at the end of World War II, the Wolf family must flee. Being caught by the Russians or Americans would be the end for them. Liesl, Otto, and baby Mia’s father has already been captured, and they get separated from their mother in a blizzard after only a few days on the run. Liesl promised Mama that she’d keep her brother and sister safe, no matter what. They’ll forage in the forests if they have to. Little do they know at the start that there are hundreds of other parentless children doing the same thing. And they far too quickly learn that, sometimes, to survive, you have to do bad things. Dangerous things. Wild things. Sometimes you must become a wolf.
Rex
Author: Kathleen Duey
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 9781599612270
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Dressed in camouflage and armed with slingshots, six kids travel back in time and try to get video footage of dinosaurs.
Publisher: ABDO
ISBN: 9781599612270
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Dressed in camouflage and armed with slingshots, six kids travel back in time and try to get video footage of dinosaurs.
Two Little Soldiers
Author: Guy de Maupassant
Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8726666804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 11
Book Description
Jean and Luc are two best friends serving in the army. Life as a soldier is unforgiving, but every Sunday provides a ray of hope for the two soldiers as they walk down the Seine river and lunch in a forest that reminds them of home. The idyllic countryside of Champioux is, to them, a little heaven. Yet when a milkmaid catches one of the soldier’s eyes, the two friends’ ordered world begins to unravel. A simple tale of friendship, love, and loss, "Two Little Soldiers" is a masterful portrayal of Maupassant’s knowledge of the human soul and condition. Perfect for readers of Hemingway, this short story is tinged with the tragedy of war seen through the lives of everyday soldiers. Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a famous French writer, often referred to as the father of the short story. A prolific writer, his best known works include "Bel-Ami", "Une Vie" and "The Necklace", alongside some 300 short stories, travel books, and poetry. A master of style and dramatic narrative, Maupassant’s stories are drawn to themes of war, the working class, and the human condition. One of his greatest influences was Gustave Flaubert, who introduced him to some of the central names of the time such as Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James.
Publisher: Lindhardt og Ringhof
ISBN: 8726666804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 11
Book Description
Jean and Luc are two best friends serving in the army. Life as a soldier is unforgiving, but every Sunday provides a ray of hope for the two soldiers as they walk down the Seine river and lunch in a forest that reminds them of home. The idyllic countryside of Champioux is, to them, a little heaven. Yet when a milkmaid catches one of the soldier’s eyes, the two friends’ ordered world begins to unravel. A simple tale of friendship, love, and loss, "Two Little Soldiers" is a masterful portrayal of Maupassant’s knowledge of the human soul and condition. Perfect for readers of Hemingway, this short story is tinged with the tragedy of war seen through the lives of everyday soldiers. Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was a famous French writer, often referred to as the father of the short story. A prolific writer, his best known works include "Bel-Ami", "Une Vie" and "The Necklace", alongside some 300 short stories, travel books, and poetry. A master of style and dramatic narrative, Maupassant’s stories are drawn to themes of war, the working class, and the human condition. One of his greatest influences was Gustave Flaubert, who introduced him to some of the central names of the time such as Emile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, and Henry James.
Crossings
Author: Jon Kerstetter
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1101904399
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
A searing, beautifully told memoir by a Native American doctor on the trials of being a doctor-soldier in the Iraq War, and then, after suffering a stroke that left his life irrevocably changed, his struggles to overcome the new limits of his body, mind, and identity. Every juncture in Jon Kerstetter’s life has been marked by a crossing from one world into another: from civilian to doctor to soldier; between healing and waging war; and between compassion and hatred of the enemy. When an injury led to a stroke that ended his careers as a doctor and a soldier, he faced the most difficult crossing of all, a recovery that proved as shattering as war itself. Crossings is a memoir of an improbable, powerfully drawn life, one that began in poverty on the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin but grew by force of will to encompass a remarkable medical practice. Trained as an emergency physician, Kerstetter’s thirst for intensity led him to volunteer in war-torn Rwanda, Kosovo, and Bosnia, and to join the Army National Guard. His three tours in the Iraq War marked the height of the American struggle there. The story of his work in theater, which involved everything from saving soldiers’ lives to organizing the joint U.S.–Iraqi forensics team tasked with identifying the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons, is a bracing, unprecedented evocation of a doctor’s life at war. But war was only the start of Kerstetter’s struggle. The stroke he suffered upon returning from Iraq led to serious cognitive and physical disabilities. His years-long recovery, impeded by near-unbearable pain and complicated by PTSD, meant overcoming the perceived limits of his body and mind and reimagining his own capacity for renewal and change. It led him not only to writing as a vocation but to a deeper understanding of how healing means accepting a new identity, and how that acceptance must be fought for with as much tenacity as any battlefield victory.
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 1101904399
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
A searing, beautifully told memoir by a Native American doctor on the trials of being a doctor-soldier in the Iraq War, and then, after suffering a stroke that left his life irrevocably changed, his struggles to overcome the new limits of his body, mind, and identity. Every juncture in Jon Kerstetter’s life has been marked by a crossing from one world into another: from civilian to doctor to soldier; between healing and waging war; and between compassion and hatred of the enemy. When an injury led to a stroke that ended his careers as a doctor and a soldier, he faced the most difficult crossing of all, a recovery that proved as shattering as war itself. Crossings is a memoir of an improbable, powerfully drawn life, one that began in poverty on the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin but grew by force of will to encompass a remarkable medical practice. Trained as an emergency physician, Kerstetter’s thirst for intensity led him to volunteer in war-torn Rwanda, Kosovo, and Bosnia, and to join the Army National Guard. His three tours in the Iraq War marked the height of the American struggle there. The story of his work in theater, which involved everything from saving soldiers’ lives to organizing the joint U.S.–Iraqi forensics team tasked with identifying the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s sons, is a bracing, unprecedented evocation of a doctor’s life at war. But war was only the start of Kerstetter’s struggle. The stroke he suffered upon returning from Iraq led to serious cognitive and physical disabilities. His years-long recovery, impeded by near-unbearable pain and complicated by PTSD, meant overcoming the perceived limits of his body and mind and reimagining his own capacity for renewal and change. It led him not only to writing as a vocation but to a deeper understanding of how healing means accepting a new identity, and how that acceptance must be fought for with as much tenacity as any battlefield victory.
Combat-Ready Kitchen
Author: Anastacia Marx de Salcedo
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591845971
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this entertaining romp through the secret military history of practically everything you buy at the supermarket. In a nondescript Boston suburb, in a handful of low buildings buffered by trees and a lake, a group of men and women spend their days researching, testing, tasting, and producing the foods that form the bedrock of the American diet. If you stumbled into the facility, you might think the technicians dressed in lab coats and the shiny kitchen equipment belonged to one of the giant food conglomerates responsible for your favorite brand of frozen pizza or microwavable breakfast burritos. So you’d be surprised to learn that you’ve just entered the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, ground zero for the processed food industry. Ever since Napoleon, armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport food for battle. As part of this quest, although most people don’t realize it, the U.S. military spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, instant coffee, and much more. But there’s been an insidious mission creep: because the military enlisted industry—huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever—to help develop and manufacture food for soldiers on the front line, over the years combat rations, or the key technologies used in engineering them, have ended up dominating grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases. TV dinners, the cheese powder in snack foods, cling wrap . . . The list is almost endless. Now food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo scrutinizes the world of processed food and its long relationship with the military—unveiling the twists, turns, successes, failures, and products that have found their way from the armed forces’ and contractors’ laboratories into our kitchens. In developing these rations, the army was looking for some of the very same qualities as we do in our hectic, fast-paced twenty-first-century lives: portability, ease of preparation, extended shelf life at room temperature, affordability, and appeal to even the least adventurous eaters. In other words, the military has us chowing down like special ops. What is the effect of such a diet, eaten—as it is by soldiers and most consumers—day in and day out, year after year? We don’t really know. We’re the guinea pigs in a giant public health experiment, one in which science and technology, at the beck and call of the military, have taken over our kitchens.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591845971
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this entertaining romp through the secret military history of practically everything you buy at the supermarket. In a nondescript Boston suburb, in a handful of low buildings buffered by trees and a lake, a group of men and women spend their days researching, testing, tasting, and producing the foods that form the bedrock of the American diet. If you stumbled into the facility, you might think the technicians dressed in lab coats and the shiny kitchen equipment belonged to one of the giant food conglomerates responsible for your favorite brand of frozen pizza or microwavable breakfast burritos. So you’d be surprised to learn that you’ve just entered the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, ground zero for the processed food industry. Ever since Napoleon, armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport food for battle. As part of this quest, although most people don’t realize it, the U.S. military spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, instant coffee, and much more. But there’s been an insidious mission creep: because the military enlisted industry—huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever—to help develop and manufacture food for soldiers on the front line, over the years combat rations, or the key technologies used in engineering them, have ended up dominating grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases. TV dinners, the cheese powder in snack foods, cling wrap . . . The list is almost endless. Now food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo scrutinizes the world of processed food and its long relationship with the military—unveiling the twists, turns, successes, failures, and products that have found their way from the armed forces’ and contractors’ laboratories into our kitchens. In developing these rations, the army was looking for some of the very same qualities as we do in our hectic, fast-paced twenty-first-century lives: portability, ease of preparation, extended shelf life at room temperature, affordability, and appeal to even the least adventurous eaters. In other words, the military has us chowing down like special ops. What is the effect of such a diet, eaten—as it is by soldiers and most consumers—day in and day out, year after year? We don’t really know. We’re the guinea pigs in a giant public health experiment, one in which science and technology, at the beck and call of the military, have taken over our kitchens.
Soldier: A Poet's Childhood
Author: June Jordan
Publisher: Civitas Books
ISBN: 0786731370
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
A profoundly moving childhood memoir by one of the most widely acclaimed Black American writers of her generation Captured with astonishing beauty, through the eyes of a child, Soldier paints the battleground of June Jordan’s youth as the gifted daughter of Jamaican immigrants, struggling under the humiliations of racism, sexism, and poverty in 1940s New York. “There was a war on against colored people, against poor people,” Jordan writes, and she watches her mother turn inward in her suffering, her father lashing out, often violently, against his own daughter. She learns to harden herself, to be a “soldier,” while preserving a deep capacity for love and wonder. Poignantly exploring the nature of memory, imagination, and familial as well as social responsibility, Jordan re-creates the vivid world in which her identity as a social and artistic revolutionary was forged.
Publisher: Civitas Books
ISBN: 0786731370
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
A profoundly moving childhood memoir by one of the most widely acclaimed Black American writers of her generation Captured with astonishing beauty, through the eyes of a child, Soldier paints the battleground of June Jordan’s youth as the gifted daughter of Jamaican immigrants, struggling under the humiliations of racism, sexism, and poverty in 1940s New York. “There was a war on against colored people, against poor people,” Jordan writes, and she watches her mother turn inward in her suffering, her father lashing out, often violently, against his own daughter. She learns to harden herself, to be a “soldier,” while preserving a deep capacity for love and wonder. Poignantly exploring the nature of memory, imagination, and familial as well as social responsibility, Jordan re-creates the vivid world in which her identity as a social and artistic revolutionary was forged.