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lanadelrat's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
gmamartha's review against another edition
4.0
Historical fiction in Chicago (during the time I lived near there...)
This is what our group of middle schoolers in Mock Newbery group chose as this year's winner.
This is what our group of middle schoolers in Mock Newbery group chose as this year's winner.
aoosterwyk's review against another edition
5.0
At times this book was painful to listen to, but the emotion added to the experience. The reader, Dion Graham, was fantastic. He was able to alter his voice to capture even the female characters without sounding silly.
I'm not sure I've ever read a more powerful book about growing up and sons , good sons, making life choices that separate them from their parents. This is a look at the civil rights movement from the perspective of people who don't want to wait for equal rights to be given to them unwillingly. They want their due- now.
Sam and Stephen's father is a key player with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the boys have always believed his views to be right. This book is about the time in life when your beliefs diverge from your parents' and how painful that is. Also, the boys have always been close and now they are growing apart as Stephen begins to question his father's path.
Until now I had always thought King's non-violent protests were the way to go. Now I'm convinced I would have sided with the Black Panthers.
I'm not sure I've ever read a more powerful book about growing up and sons , good sons, making life choices that separate them from their parents. This is a look at the civil rights movement from the perspective of people who don't want to wait for equal rights to be given to them unwillingly. They want their due- now.
Sam and Stephen's father is a key player with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the boys have always believed his views to be right. This book is about the time in life when your beliefs diverge from your parents' and how painful that is. Also, the boys have always been close and now they are growing apart as Stephen begins to question his father's path.
Until now I had always thought King's non-violent protests were the way to go. Now I'm convinced I would have sided with the Black Panthers.
jdintr's review against another edition
5.0
Magoon reaches back into one of America's most painful summers, 1968, to bring light to issues roiling our country today--#ferguson and #blacklivesmatter
It's a fascinating juxtaposition. Sam is the son of a Chicago civil rights leader. His father's ardent advocacy of nonviolence is put to the test in the book's opening scene, when Sam and his brother, Stick, are attacked at a civil right rally by a bottle-wielding counter-protester.
Soon, Stick abandons the ideal of nonviolence, even as Dr. King is assassinated and Chicago is devastated by riots. He joins up with the Black Panther Party (BPP), leaving his home and father behind him.
Despite the opposition from his nonviolent father, Sam is drawn toward the BPP. His girlfriend, Maxie, a girl from the ghetto, invites him to free breakfasts served by the BPP. After Sam and Maxie witness police violence against a friend, they are quickly caught up in the Panthers' efforts to exonerate him.
The struggle between violence and nonviolence endures throughout the plot and leads to a heartbreakingly vivid conclusion. Magoon is a gifted writer, who has a playwright's sense of dialogue and the courage to push a scene beyond its breaking point to reveal truths and flaws in her characters.
The Rock and the River is a book that will fascinate urban youth, ages 12-17, but it is a book that illumines today's challenges for all readers. I highly recommend it.
It's a fascinating juxtaposition. Sam is the son of a Chicago civil rights leader. His father's ardent advocacy of nonviolence is put to the test in the book's opening scene, when Sam and his brother, Stick, are attacked at a civil right rally by a bottle-wielding counter-protester.
Soon, Stick abandons the ideal of nonviolence, even as Dr. King is assassinated and Chicago is devastated by riots. He joins up with the Black Panther Party (BPP), leaving his home and father behind him.
Despite the opposition from his nonviolent father, Sam is drawn toward the BPP. His girlfriend, Maxie, a girl from the ghetto, invites him to free breakfasts served by the BPP. After Sam and Maxie witness police violence against a friend, they are quickly caught up in the Panthers' efforts to exonerate him.
The struggle between violence and nonviolence endures throughout the plot and leads to a heartbreakingly vivid conclusion. Magoon is a gifted writer, who has a playwright's sense of dialogue and the courage to push a scene beyond its breaking point to reveal truths and flaws in her characters.
The Rock and the River is a book that will fascinate urban youth, ages 12-17, but it is a book that illumines today's challenges for all readers. I highly recommend it.
readwithpassion's review against another edition
5.0
This historical fiction places the reader in the Civil Rights Movement. Sam struggles to decide if he should stick by his father, a powerful civil rights activist in the community, or join his brother, a Black Panther. The amount of frustration I felt while I read this book proves just how powerful it is. I highly recommend this one.
librariandest's review against another edition
3.0
More of a teaching tool than a great novel, I think. It had plenty of the ingredients for an outstanding read, but didn't come together for me.
If you want to learn about the Civil Rights Movement in 1968 from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy whose father is a peaceful leader alongside MLK, and whose older brother is joining the Black Panther Party, this book succeeds. But if you're looking to read a really great story, not so much. I learned a lot from reading it, but I can't say I enjoyed it very much.
The language of book is elegant and thoughtful (though, in my copy, chapter 12 started with a typo: a big W instead of a T, turning "the" into "whe"). But the plot relentlessly hits you with terrible injustice after terrible injustice. The main character, Sam, is constantly hurt, confused, angry, scared--so much so, it's hard to connect with him. He never knows what to think or what to do. Some people may not be bothered by that because it's realistic. But I like my main characters to have a stronger perspective, so they don't just get blown around like a leaf in the wind through the entire book.
The other main characters in this book (Sam's father Roland, his brother Stick, Sam's girlfriend Maxie, his friend Bucky, his mother, and Stick's Black Panther friends) are all good and well-intentioned people caught in a seemingly hopeless battle for equality. The story's villains (racist white people, usually cops) are all exceedingly evil and one-dimensional. It's easy to hate the bad guys, but hard to choose which good guys you want to follow. The non-violent MLKers who organize demonstrations or the gun-carrying Panthers who provide breakfast and free clinics for black communities? I wasn't drawn into this MLK vs. Panther conflict because they both seemed like good options. It would be interesting fodder for debate among students, though.
There's a lot of violence in this book, almost all of it senseless and horrifying. So this is definitely something to recommend to mature readers, probably 7th grade and up.
If you want to learn about the Civil Rights Movement in 1968 from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy whose father is a peaceful leader alongside MLK, and whose older brother is joining the Black Panther Party, this book succeeds. But if you're looking to read a really great story, not so much. I learned a lot from reading it, but I can't say I enjoyed it very much.
The language of book is elegant and thoughtful (though, in my copy, chapter 12 started with a typo: a big W instead of a T, turning "the" into "whe"). But the plot relentlessly hits you with terrible injustice after terrible injustice. The main character, Sam, is constantly hurt, confused, angry, scared--so much so, it's hard to connect with him. He never knows what to think or what to do. Some people may not be bothered by that because it's realistic. But I like my main characters to have a stronger perspective, so they don't just get blown around like a leaf in the wind through the entire book.
The other main characters in this book (Sam's father Roland, his brother Stick, Sam's girlfriend Maxie, his friend Bucky, his mother, and Stick's Black Panther friends) are all good and well-intentioned people caught in a seemingly hopeless battle for equality. The story's villains (racist white people, usually cops) are all exceedingly evil and one-dimensional. It's easy to hate the bad guys, but hard to choose which good guys you want to follow. The non-violent MLKers who organize demonstrations or the gun-carrying Panthers who provide breakfast and free clinics for black communities? I wasn't drawn into this MLK vs. Panther conflict because they both seemed like good options. It would be interesting fodder for debate among students, though.
There's a lot of violence in this book, almost all of it senseless and horrifying. So this is definitely something to recommend to mature readers, probably 7th grade and up.
mandyc1977's review against another edition
5.0
Read through the lens of being a YA novel, I give this book 5 stars. Throughput the book, though, I gound myself wanting it to be a longer, grittier version of the story but given that it's a YA book, I feel like Magoon does an excellent job of giving us a snapshot of 1968 Chicago.
What Magoon does so well is to look at one story from many different viewpoints. This was done in "How It Went Down" and happens again in "The Rock and the River". There are no easy decisions, stories in this book. You begin to understand those who protest peacefully and those who chose to fight back. There was no right or wrong presented, only agonizing choices.
I highly recommend this book to MS/HS students. It's a good first look at a turbulent time, having implications for today and fodder for some great discussion.
What Magoon does so well is to look at one story from many different viewpoints. This was done in "How It Went Down" and happens again in "The Rock and the River". There are no easy decisions, stories in this book. You begin to understand those who protest peacefully and those who chose to fight back. There was no right or wrong presented, only agonizing choices.
I highly recommend this book to MS/HS students. It's a good first look at a turbulent time, having implications for today and fodder for some great discussion.
crystal_reading's review against another edition
5.0
This is a look into the civil rights movement through the eyes of the son of a leader who believes in passive resistance. What was helpful to me was the view into the role of the Black Panthers. I had limited knowledge of their community work at least until I read One Crazy Summer a few years ago, but this gave even more background in the story and in the afterward. Sam's voice rang true and haunted me.
marmoset737's review against another edition
4.0
This is an interesting, and unique, look at the Civil Rights movement as it focuses one one adolescent's experiences with the Black Panther movement which as has been said by other reviewers, is pretty rare in YA/tween lit.
This is a good historical fiction choice for ages 10-15. The main character, Sam, is relatable - while he's dealing with a lot of extreme conflicts in terms of racial relations, his father and brother's conflicting ideals, etc. that shape the historical elements of the book, he's also dealing with normal adolescent issues like first crushes in a compelling way.
My only caveat with the book is that the ending felt rushed, particularly Sam's final decisions. No spoilers...but I just wish the author had spent a little more time wrapping up the complicated relationships and conflicts that faced Sam through the rest of the book.
This is a good historical fiction choice for ages 10-15. The main character, Sam, is relatable - while he's dealing with a lot of extreme conflicts in terms of racial relations, his father and brother's conflicting ideals, etc. that shape the historical elements of the book, he's also dealing with normal adolescent issues like first crushes in a compelling way.
My only caveat with the book is that the ending felt rushed, particularly Sam's final decisions. No spoilers...but I just wish the author had spent a little more time wrapping up the complicated relationships and conflicts that faced Sam through the rest of the book.
sc104906's review against another edition
4.0
"You can't be the rock and the river!" Set during the Civil Rights Movement, Sam's father is part of Martin Luther King movement, while his brother is part of the Black Panther Party. Sam knows that life is unfair for African Americans in American, but he is still determining his place in the world. All he really wants to deal with is figuring out how to ask Maxie to walk with him after school. After witnessing one of his brother's friends being beaten and jailed for being black, Sam is forced to find his place in the movement.