Jazz Owls by Margarita Engle - ADVISABLE

Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots by Margarita Engle, 177 pages. Atheneum, 2018. $18.  

Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.   

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ADVISABLE  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

Two Mexican American girls and their brother enjoy dancing as a way to keep their spirits up during World War II.  They live near Los Angeles and come in contact with the soldiers who are on their way to fight in the Pacific.  This book explores the way the Mexican Americans were discriminated against during this time in history.  Some of the male dancers would wear baggy suits that were known as Zoot suits and these dancers were targeted by racist soldiers.  Through the eyes of three characters their feelings of racial tension are explored.  

I know my description doesn’t do this book justice.  I love that Engle writes historical fiction about events that are less known.  The way she expressed the discrimination some Mexican Americans felt during World War II is very well done.  This book is written in poems which gave the history a feeling instead of a bunch of facts.  Well done.  

C. Peterson