Response - Hardcover

Volponi, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670062839 ISBN 13: 9780670062836

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2009

Synopsis

Noah and his friends go to a predominantly white neighborhood with a plan: steal a car, sell it to a chop shop, and make some fast cash. But that never happens. Instead, Noah, a teen father, is the victim of a vicious beating that leaves him with a fractured skull. Was the attacker just protecting his turf, or did he assault Noah because he?s black? Awardwinning author Paul Volponi, known for his brutally honest portrayals of the moral complexities of urban life, uses alternating perspective to give readers a fascinating and chilling insight into the minds of those on both sides of a hate crime.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Volponi is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult novel Black & White. From 1992 to 1998, he taught adolescents on Rikers Island in New York City to read and write. Mr. Volponi worked at a day treatment center like Daytop teaching students and helping them prepare for the GED. Mr. Volponi lives in New York City.

Reviews

Grade 6–10—Seventeen-year-old Noah and his two buddies go to an Italian-American neighborhood, intent on stealing a car to sell for parts. Instead, some thugs target the African-American teens and beat Noah's head in with a baseball bat. The unrepentant bat wielder, Charlie Scaturro, and his cohorts are charged with a hate crime. His cousin Spenelli confesses and the third boy, the son of a police officer, testifies to avoid prosecution. At Noah's mostly black school, white kids wear "Free Spenelli" T-shirts and the gym teacher is a vicious, obvious bigot. All of the basher's Italian-American friends and family are unabashedly racist. Volponi presents Noah's life as a student, son, and teen father simply though not simplistically. The dialogue between the protagonist and his buddies and family is occasionally precious, but mostly natural. Volponi interjects film-script dialogue of events in prison, and in Charlie's head. Though these episodes highlight Charlie's narcissism, they detract from the (mildly) suspenseful mood and slow the pace of the narrative. The racism in this town is so vicious and public, so over-the-top that it's hard to see the white, mostly Italian Americans as anything but caricatures. Though it's certainly easy to believe the events of this story, Volponi's portrayal is never wholly convincing.—Johanna Lewis, New York Public Library
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“All I’d really ever done with my life is get a girl pregnant, and made the news for thinking about swiping a car and getting my ass whipped with a baseball bat.” So says 17-year-old Noah Jackson, ruminating on his existence after being viciously pummeled by three Italian American kids. Because the attack seems to be based on Noah’s skin color, it is being prosecuted as a hate crime, and suddenly Noah finds himself a local celebrity. Fame is less fun than it sounds—kids start wearing “Free Spenelli” (the name of one of the jailed attackers) T-shirts to school, the media is pressing him for statements about white people, and his attorneys are making him nervous about the trial. Writing in an authentic voice, Volponi balances sensitivity and rage, but his most subtle achievement is the multi-generational family drama. When Noah suddenly feels the promise of his future at the exact moment he stands at his go-nowhere fry cook job, it gives us hope that he will pass on his hard lessons to his own child. Grades 6-9. --Daniel Kraus

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670062839
• ISBN 13: 9780670062836
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 145