|
Product Description
When Johnquell, an African American teen, suffers a serious accident in the home of his white neighbor, Mrs. Czernicki, his community must find ways to bridge divisions between black and white, gay and straight, old and young. Set in one of the nation’s most highly segregated cities—Milwaukee, Wisconsin—Meet Me Halfway tells stories of connections in a community with a tumultuous and divided past. In nine stories told from diverse perspectives, Jennifer Morales captures a Rust Belt city’s struggle to establish a common ground and a collective vision of the future.
Morales gives life to multifaceted characters—white schoolteachers and senior citizens, Latino landlords, black and Puerto Rican teens, political activists, and Vietnam vets. As their lives unfold in these stories, we learn about Johnquell’s family—his grandparents’ involvement in the local Black Panther Party, his sister’s on-again, off-again friendship with a white classmate, and his aunt’s identity crisis as she finds herself falling in love with a woman. We also meet Johnquell’s mother, Gloria, and his school friend Taquan, who is struggling to chart his own future.
As an activist mother in the thick of Milwaukee politics, Morales developed a keen ear and a tender heart for the kids who have inherited the city’s troubled racial legacy. With a critical eye on promises unfulfilled, Meet Me Halfway raises questions about the notion of a “postracial” society and, with humor and compassion, lifts up the day-to-day work needed to get there.
Runner-up, Short Story/Anthology, Midwest Book Awards
Best books for public & secondary school libraries from university presses, American Library Association
Wisconsin representative for “Great Lakes Reads,” Library of Congress Center for the Book and its affiliated Midwest centers
Outstanding Achievement Award, Wisconsin Library Association (one of ten 2015 books chosen)
Morales gives life to multifaceted characters—white schoolteachers and senior citizens, Latino landlords, black and Puerto Rican teens, political activists, and Vietnam vets. As their lives unfold in these stories, we learn about Johnquell’s family—his grandparents’ involvement in the local Black Panther Party, his sister’s on-again, off-again friendship with a white classmate, and his aunt’s identity crisis as she finds herself falling in love with a woman. We also meet Johnquell’s mother, Gloria, and his school friend Taquan, who is struggling to chart his own future.
As an activist mother in the thick of Milwaukee politics, Morales developed a keen ear and a tender heart for the kids who have inherited the city’s troubled racial legacy. With a critical eye on promises unfulfilled, Meet Me Halfway raises questions about the notion of a “postracial” society and, with humor and compassion, lifts up the day-to-day work needed to get there.
Runner-up, Short Story/Anthology, Midwest Book Awards
Best books for public & secondary school libraries from university presses, American Library Association
Wisconsin representative for “Great Lakes Reads,” Library of Congress Center for the Book and its affiliated Midwest centers
Outstanding Achievement Award, Wisconsin Library Association (one of ten 2015 books chosen)
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past
- Salvaged
- Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal, 2 Edition
- MLA Handbook
- Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction
- The House on Mango Street
- Blood Run (Earthworks Series)
- Growing Minds
- The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: One-Volume Compact Edition: The Medieval Period through the Twenty First Century
*If this is not the "Meet Me Halfway: Milwaukee Stories" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Dec 19, 2024 07:54 +08.