Anger Is a Gift

March 26, 2018
Oshiro, creator of the Mark Does Stuff website, takes readers on an emotional roller-coaster in this powerful and timely debut novel that conveys a community’s bitter experience living within a culture of white supremacy. Sixteen-year-old Moss Jeffries, a gay African-American student attending run-down West Oakland High School, has experienced panic attacks since police shot his father six years earlier. A warm, mutually respectful relationship with his mother, an extended network of friends of diverse genders, sexual orientations, and family makeup, and a budding romance with Javier, a cute Latino comic book artist, all indicate a hopeful future. Yet violent incidents continue to threaten the community’s well-being. In one improbable event that affects the story’s plausibility, a boy with metal pins in his knee suffers a severe injury as a result of being forced to walk through a school metal detector. This event and several police assaults on students lead to organizing, with the community’s fear building to a crescendo in a planned walkout gone awry. Oshiro deftly captures the simmering rage that ultimately transforms Moss from a quiet teenager to a committed activist against a brutal, menacing system. Ages 14–18. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

Author Mark Oshiro, writer of the online universe Mark Does Stuff, narrates his powerful debut audiobook. The new school year has just begun, and the administration at West Oakland High has started treating Moss and his classmates like criminals. When the implementation of random locker searches and high-powered metal detectors leads to two students getting injured, Moss and his community organize a peaceful walkout in protest. A more professional-sounding narrator could have brought this audiobook to life by varying the voices of the delightfully diverse characters. Sadly, Oshiro's narration falls flat. Inconsistencies--such as changing the pronunciation of a character's name halfway through the audiobook-- could have been avoided to allow the story to shine. S.P. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine