Kent State

YA nonfiction 

     "America's troop involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1964 and ended in 1973.  In those nine years, over 58,000 Americans died, most of them under the age of twenty-five.  Nineteen- and twenty-year-olds serving in Vietnam were not old enough to vote at the start of the war, but were old enough to die for their country more than 8,000 miles away from home."

     When I was a teen the War in Nam was up close and personal.  For males who didn't have friends in high places the draft presented a mandate to fight under hellish conditions and maybe come back in a body bag.  For the rest of us it was our brothers, cousins, and friends who were put in peril.

     That war was also political.  A lot of us were sure that, contrary to the Pentagon's narrative, America was in the wrong--interfering in the affairs of a sovereign nation for our own selfish gains and killing civilians including babies.  We knew about the Mai Lei Massacre.

     Many high school and college students demonstrated to draw attention to the wrongness of the war and to try to end it.  Many adults were horrified by our behavior.  We were spoiled traitors, a danger and disgrace to our country.  Police and other authorities began to use violence against us.  In 1970 at Kent State University the National Guard occupying the school opened fire, killing four students and injuring nine.

"This book chronicles those four days in May 1970 when America turned on its unarmed children, in their schoolyard, and killed them."

     In Kent State Deborah Wiles uses a script like format to introduce younger readers to a tragic incident in American history.  Six viewpoints, differentiated by font and position on the page, narrate the drama.

     There are the radical students

"But they did die.

They were sacrificial lambs,

coldly, deliberately slaughtered."

and their more conservative peers.

"No they weren't--it was a mistake. 

A tragic mistake."

There are the Black students.

"We were politicized 

at birth, by white society's 

reaction to our very existence."

There's the National Guard.

"Do you think we wanted 

to be called to Kent?

We were already wearing full riot gear,

just coming off protecting 

replacement drivers

in the truckers' strike."

     I call the final voices Archie and Edith.  If you've ever seen All In The Family you'll get the allusion.  He thunders in all capitals.

"YOU DIDN'T RESPECT ANYTHING!

YOU WERE SELFISH.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO 

RESPECT AUTHORITY."

While she whispers in tiny font.

"my god the helicopters

they flew over our homes

all night.

our children slept with us,

fear in their hearts

and ours."

     With her unique format Wiles really makes the past come alive for her target demographic and beyond.  

On a purrrsonal note, Eugene has a fine weekend to spend at camp: blue skies, decent temperatures, only the tiniest of snow flurries.  And Tobago and I have a fine weekend to spend at home hanging out near our beautiful tree before we get back into the academic routine.  A little extra candy before I go back on my most of the year healthy diet.  (Jules)

We are celebrating good times.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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