Mack, Tracy. Birdland.MACK, Tracy. Birdland. Read by Dion Graham. 3 cds. 3 hrs. Blackstone Audio. 2003/2005. 0-7861-7680-6. $36.00. Vinyl; plot, author, reader notes. JSA JSA - Japanese Standards Association. This is a short, compelling novel about a New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. family in crisis. Jed and his parents are mourning the loss of Jed's older brother, Zeke. This strains the marriage between Jed's physician father and his musician mother. A distraction for Jed is a school project he undertakes with his skateboarding buddy, Flyer; they decide to do a documentary film of their neighborhood. In the process they encounter a homeless teenaged girl. Jed discovers that she and his brother had a connection and he becomes determined to crack her hardscrabble hard·scrab·ble adj. Earning a bare subsistence, as on the land; marginal: the sharecropper's hardscrabble life. n. Barren or marginal farmland. Adj. 1. shell. When she attempts suicide, Jed must turn for help to his father. This second crisis forms a base for possible reconnection and healing in the family. The Birdland title comes from Zeke's love of Charlie Parker. Lovely jazz rifts appear in the stark, lyrical prose. Graham gives an equally lovely African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. voicing to characters whose ethnicity is indistinct in·dis·tinct adj. 1. Not clearly or sharply delineated: an indistinct pattern; indistinct shapes in the gloom. 2. Faint; dim: indistinct stars. 3. . That redemption can be found in suffering seems to be a theme of this artistic, urban, slice of life. Nancy Crowder Chaplin, Libn., VCCW VCCW Virginia Correctional Center for Women , Goochland, VA J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will extend KLIATT's usefuln |
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