Winter Break Reading

 

Happy New Year, everyone! Over winter break, I read A Young People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff and Clean Getaway by Nic Stone. A Young People's History of the United States is a narrative nonfiction book that tells the story of the United States from Columbus through George W. Bush's presidency. Writing from an anti-war perspective, the book highlights the contributions of workers, enslaved people, immigrants, women, Native Americans, and others whose stories are not typically told in history books. In doing so, it takes a critical view of the U.S. government, while showing how the country's greatness comes from young people.

I found this book fascinating because it presented a version of U.S. history that I was compelled to know more about. While the civil rights movement was highlighted in my education several times, I feel like other eras were only glossed over, especially in recent history. I don't think I realized just how many strikes, rebellions, riots, and marches there have been throughout the country's history, but the book helped me understand the current events of the last five or so years and how the U.S. has gotten to where it is now. It was infuriating to read how the U.S. government tends to choose military spending over programs that would help the people. Additionally, the authors emphasized that the government often does just enough to prevent mass rebellion, which resonated with me. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the relationship between the government, businesses, and people of the United States.

The second book I read, Clean Getaway, is an adventurous realistic fiction novel about an eleven-year-old boy, William "Scoob" Lamar, who goes on a road trip with his grandmother, G'ma, after he gets in trouble at school and his dad cancels his spring break trip. Although the trip starts innocently enough as they head from Georgia to Alabama, he begins to have questions about G'ma's past and who she is as a person after they stop at a jewelry store and it appears she stole a necklace. Scoob also wonders why she won't talk to his dad on the phone. G'ma does begin to open up as they visit different landmarks of the Civil Rights movement and Scoob learns more about the challenges of her relationship with his grandfather because they were a mixed race couple in the South during the 1960s. As their journey continues through Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas towards Mexico, Scoob becomes increasingly worried about G'ma and the secrets she is keeping from him.

For being fairly short, this novel was such a roller coaster ride, like the roller coasters Scoob and G'ma went on when they stopped at Six Flags over Texas, and the ending is definitely bittersweet. Scoob, G'ma, and the story were funny at times, so I never really expected the end to devastate me like it did. The whole book ended up being very moving, and I really enjoyed it. I loved reading a story about the relationship between a boy and his grandmother because I don't think many books have that type of relationship at its core, at least not the ones I've read. Scoob and G'ma seemed really close, especially when Scoob had a strained relationship with his father because of how he was getting in trouble at school over the the past few months. It was wonderful seeing the growth of Scoob and his father's relationship by the end of the book, though. I also thought the inclusion of a Green Book was important because I learned about them when I saw the movie Green Book a few years ago and knew that black people in the South used them to travel safely in the 1960s and before. Overall, Clean Getaway is an emotional and gripping story for anyone who likes reading about family.