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by Anne Mazer (Editor)

Overview

14 short memoirs about growing up in America's diverse society by Susan Power, Luis Rodriguez, Willie Ruff, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Ved Mehta, Gary Soto, Naomi Shabib Nye, Lee Daniels, Graham Salisbury, Lensey Namioka, Helen Epstein, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780892552061
Publisher:	Persea Books
Publication date:	09/28/1994
Pages:	166
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 17 Years

About the Author

Anne Mazer is the author of several widely acclaimed books, including the novels Moose Street and The Oxboy, and a picture book, The Salamander Room, winner of the Keystone to Reading Book Award and a Reading Rainbow Feature Selection.
Anthologies from edited by Mazer include: America Street, Going Where I'm Coming From, A Walk in My World, and Working Days. Mazur lives in Ithaca, New York.

Editorial Reviews

``To find out who they are and where they're going, the writers of this collection have looked back to where they've come from,'' Mazer (editor of the fiction collection America Street) states in her introduction. Her solid anthology uses 14 entries to explore a commendable range of cultures, including Sioux, Polish, Japanese, Hispanic, African American, Jewish, Indian and Chinese. Lensey Namioka's ``Math and After Math'' wryly contrasts the attitudes of her Chinese parents and those of her American classmates toward math-proficient females. In the wrenching ``Dinnertime,'' Helen Epstein hints at the immense sorrow and strength of her parents, survivors of the Holocaust trying to earn a living and keep their pride in a New York City that cares little about her father's Olympic athlete past or her mother's standing in prewar Prague. Particularly moving is African American jazz musician Willie Ruff's ``A Call to Assembly,'' in which he describes both his joy when a boyhood employer taught him sign language so he could communicate with a deaf co-worker, and his rage and loss of respect when the same boss makes a horrible remark about ``niggers.'' A sturdy, stimulating collection. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This is an outstanding collection of fourteen personal narratives by fourteen different writers who were either born and grew up in the United States, or who migrated to the United States while they were young. From their unique perspectives, these writers recount inspiring and true stories of growing up and adapting to life in the cultural milieu of the United States. What is most fascinating about this collection is that each writer takes a journey into her/his past in search of identity, and this search facilitates self-discovery. This discovery, as the reader comes to learn through each story, is that who we are is vastly dependent upon where we've been. These narratives hold a definite appeal for those students who have grown up in the United States as well as for those who have been exposed to life in two cultures.

The ALAN Review - Sati Maharaj-Boggs