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.

January 1, 2019
Students are injured by police--and African American protagonist Moss's boyfriend is killed--in a series of escalating altercations in California's West Oakland High School. Moss, who suffers panic attacks due to his father's earlier murder by police, finds the courage to fight back. A large, diverse cast of characters and many plot threads shed light on issues related to police brutality from multiple angles, and the climax is compelling.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from April 1, 2018
Rooted in the working-class neighborhoods of Oakland, California, this is a tale of youth of color, diverse in sexuality and gender, organizing to challenge state-sanctioned violence.Black teenager Moss Jeffries is still grieving from the loss six years earlier of his father by the trigger finger of a police officer. Moss struggles with self-doubt and anxiety-induced panic attacks, finding comfort in his emerging relationship with Javier, a Latinx boy who's just as tender as he is bold. As the school year begins, the school resource officer assaults Moss' friend Shawna, claiming to suspect drugs--but the young people know that it's really about her decision to fully embrace her black trans identity. When the administration installs metal detectors, resulting in a tragic injury for their friend in a wheelchair, Moss and his circle organize to dismantle the system of violence at their school, beginning with a wildcat student walkout. They demonstrate that there will continue to be resistance wherein aggrieved communities gather in solidarity to build meaningful lives of collective joy, heartful struggle, and deep love. Moss' mother, Wanda, offers, "Anger is a gift. Remember that....You gotta grasp on to it, hold it tight and use it as ammunition. You use that anger to get things done instead of just stewing in it."A masterful debut rich with intersectional nuance and grass-roots clarity, Anger is a Gift is hella precious, hella dope. (Fiction. 14-adult)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from April 1, 2018

Gr 8 Up-High schooler Moss is a survivor. He's witnessed his father's death at the hands of the police and has anxiety, but his friends and mother help him through panic attacks. He struggles with self-consciousness and body image, and his dating life as a large, gay, African American male teen has been nonexistent-until he meets Javier, an undocumented immigrant from a different school, and begins to fall in love. As Moss starts his junior year, metal detectors and random locker searches arrive at West Oakland High. Both new policies cause immediate issues for innocent students. Moss's group of friends is affected and they begin organizing. Tragedy strikes during a planned school walk out, and Moss must stand up and fight for what is right. The heartbreaking last lines are a call to action; there is no resolved, happy ending. Part sweet love story, part social justice commentary, this title begs to be read and discussed. There are no good models of white ally-ship, and the title is stronger for this fact. In the same vein, the diversity of this title also makes it shine: sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, race, and ethnicity are all portrayed in Oshiro's inner-city Oakland setting. This timely title will provoke much-needed discussion. VERDICT A strong addition to the current wave of excellent social justice-themed contemporary realistic titles. Give this to fans of Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give.-Kristin Lee Anderson, Jackson County Library Services, OR

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.