American Ace
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- 4,49 €
Description de l’éditeur
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
