American Ace

by Marilyn Nelson

Overview

This riveting novel in verse, perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson and Toni Morrison, explores American history and race through the eyes of a teenage boy embracing his newfound identity
 
Connor’s grandmother leaves his dad a letter when she dies, and the letter’s confession shakes their tight-knit Italian-American family: The man who raised Dad is not his birth father.
 
But the only clues to this birth father’s identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot’s wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate—a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. What Connor discovers will lead him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698407909
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Lexile:	780L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Marilyn Nelson is a three-time National Book Award finalist, has won a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and several Coretta Scott King Honors, and has received several prestigious poetry awards, including the Poets' Prize and the Robert Frost Medal "for distinguished lifetime service to American poetry." Her most recent book, How I Discovered Poetry, was named a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book and an ALA Notable Children’s Book.


From the Hardcover edition.

Read an Excerpt

The Language of Suffering

 

My dad went weird when Nonna Lucia died.

It was like his sense of humor died with her.

He still patted my back and called me buddy;

we still played catch while the mosquitoes rose.

He still rubbled my head with his knuckles.

But a muscle had tightened in his jaw

I’d never seen before, and the silence

between us in the front seat of the van

sometimes made me turn on the radio.

I knew he loved his mom. We all loved her.

But when he smiled now, his eyes still looked sad,

all these months after Nonna’s funeral.

Maybe there was some treasure he’d wanted,

that she gave to one of his brothers in her will?

Maybe he’d wanted some of the furniture?

But he got the embroidered tablecloth

Nonna and Nonno brought to America,

which she spread out at family festivals

under platter after platter after platter.

He wasn’t a movie dad with another woman:

He was an oldish husband who’d just moved away,

a dad who didn’t hear you when you spoke.

Me and Mom and Theresa could see his pain,

but we don’t know the language of suffering.

Editorial Reviews

10/26/2015
Sixteen-year-old Connor Bianchini’s father inherited a letter from his deceased Italian-American mother revealing a startling truth: Connor’s grandfather was actually a WWII pilot named Ace. Connor’s investigation of his unknown relative leads to another revelation—Ace was African-American and probably one of the Tuskegee Airmen. As the family grapples with this news and Connor’s father’s recovery from a stroke, Connor writes his history honors thesis on the Airmen to better understand his heritage. In an author’s note, Nelson (How I Discovered Poetry) emphasizes her desire to write about the Airmen from the perspective of someone new to their story. However, the single-page poems only provide glimpses into Connor’s personality, suggesting a certain detachment from her narrator. Nelson uses Connor’s thesis to convey swathes of historical information (and photographs) in a condensed and somewhat forced way. Even so, Nelson’s powerful command of language is inarguable: “I feel like there’s a blackness beyond skin,” Connor reflects. “A blackness that has more to do with how/ you see than how you’re seen. That craves justice/ equally for oneself and for others.” Ages 12–up. Agent: Regina Brooks, Serendipity Literary Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for American Ace

“[Nelson’s] meticulous verse is the perfect vehicle to convey the devastating fragility of racial and familial identity in an America where interracial love is still divided through the problem of the color line.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Inspired by her father’s remarkable experiences as a Tuskegee Airman, esteemed historian-poet Nelson has aced it again. . . . This slice of history has been told before, but not like this.”—Booklist

“Nelson’s powerful command of language is inarguable.”—Publishers Weekly

“A quietly powerful story about race, ignorance, and identity from a poetry master.”—Bustle.com

“A skillful exploration into identity, culture, and race.”—Examiner.com

“A gorgeous story that stays with you long after you finish.”—Buzzfeed

“A bright spot in historical fiction.”—BookPage

“Stunning.”—Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

12/01/2015
Gr 8 Up—When she dies, Nonna Lucia leaves a letter to Connor's father, her oldest son, which reveals that he is not the biological son of her husband but rather of an American who died during World War II. It is as if Connor's father has lost himself as well as his beloved mother; he is devastated. The confusion and questions emerging from the discovery propel Connor to explore who this mysterious grandfather might have been. It emerges that he was one of the storied, heroic Tuskegee Airmen. Through 45 poems in Connor's voice, Nelson considers such matters as identity, heredity, nurture, race, and family. Connor and his father, who is teaching him to drive, have ample opportunity to probe tentatively and delicately into their feelings about such things while they're on the road. Connor's research takes on urgency after his father suffers a stroke, and his gradual recovery is deftly linked to Connor's increasing pride about their newfound heritage. VERDICT Nelson packs a good deal into these verses, and though the subject matter is weighty, she leavens it with humor and deep family affection.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

School Library Journal

★ 2015-09-16
When will the Constitution's racial fractions become a healthy whole? Multiaward-winning poet Nelson (How I Discovered Poetry, 2014, etc.) attempts to answer this still-vexing question. Sixteen-year-old Connor Bianchini casually believes in his family- and religion-confirmed half-Irish, half-Italian identity. Connor's father, Tony, finds out differently when his mother, Lucia, dies and leaves him with the inheritance of pilot's wings, a gold class ring, and a letter, in which Lucia states that Tony is the "fruit of great love" between her and an airman nicknamed Ace. Research leads Connor and his father to the discovery that Ace's class ring came from Wilberforce University, a historically black university, and his wings may have come from his service as one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. Whereas Connor embraces his "new" black ancestor, though, Tony and his other son (Connor's half brother), Carlo, react negatively: Carlo tells his father that "bad news should be told privately," and Tony literally has a stroke. The author's meticulous verse is the perfect vehicle to convey the devastating fragility of racial and familial identity in an America where interracial love is still divided through the problem of the color line. Readers will join Nelson's protagonist in quietly hoping for that healing, too. (Verse fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews