This book’s mix of personal text and well-chosen photos will make it a treasure for the author’s family.
Davis’ slim debut collection contains a range of forms—haiku, lyrics, short stories, and memoir.
An author’s note calls this work “an array of glimpses,” and the friends, family, and pets that appear in these pages offer fragments of a full life. Photographs serve to illustrate the poems—a family dog, a family member, a landscape. The personal moments preserved in this book will ensure that it becomes a cherished family archive, but the lack of sustained attention to a particular theme or genre means that it will have less appeal for a general audience. The modest poems don’t reach for insight or prophecy, but they do treat everyday observations with care. Experimentation informs some content, as in the opening series of lettered haiku. After the “I.” poem about imagining (as well as unicorns, Dr. Seuss, and world peace), the “J.” poem, “What Next,” laughs at the folly of the aging self: “I dive in the pool / To retrieve phone and hair piece / Loose shorts fly away.” Such lighthearted play with syllable counts turns more serious in the second major entry, a personal piece of prose titled “Fatherless”: “Another Father’s Day went by yesterday and I’m feeling more fatherless than ever.” Relevant biographical information soon follows: “I am sad and feel kind of empty when I reflect how your life was cancelled by the rest of the family whenever I asked about you. Just because you left, you became a non-person.” Perhaps it takes until adulthood to mourn a “non-person,” especially one whose story has been withheld, as this missive pulses with deep sadness at the father’s long absence. Exploring imagery beyond the formal boundaries of haiku, the author indulges in sensuous fantasy in “One Last Dance”: “A single nymph revolves slowly around a spire. / A lush rainbow of silk / faithfully follows each move / of the soft, marble body.” The dissolution of images, however, makes for the best lines, as it allows a human vulnerability to emerge: “Night falls and beckons the final performance. / My fantasy of Eden dissolves, / save for a tatter of shimmering silk wrapped around my sagging shoulders.”
This book’s mix of personal text and well-chosen photos will make it a treasure for the author’s family.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5144-1561-0
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.
A former NFL player casts his gimlet eye on American race relations.
In his first book, Acho, an analyst for Fox Sports who grew up in Dallas as the son of Nigerian immigrants, addresses White readers who have sent him questions about Black history and culture. “My childhood,” he writes, “was one big study abroad in white culture—followed by studying abroad in black culture during college and then during my years in the NFL, which I spent on teams with 80-90 percent black players, each of whom had his own experience of being a person of color in America. Now, I’m fluent in both cultures: black and white.” While the author avoids condescending to readers who already acknowledge their White privilege or understand why it’s unacceptable to use the N-word, he’s also attuned to the sensitive nature of the topic. As such, he has created “a place where questions you may have been afraid to ask get answered.” Acho has a deft touch and a historian’s knack for marshaling facts. He packs a lot into his concise narrative, from an incisive historical breakdown of American racial unrest and violence to the ways of cultural appropriation: Your friend respecting and appreciating Black arts and culture? OK. Kim Kardashian showing off her braids and attributing her sense of style to Bo Derek? Not so much. Within larger chapters, the text, which originated with the author’s online video series with the same title, is neatly organized under helpful headings: “Let’s rewind,” “Let’s get uncomfortable,” “Talk it, walk it.” Acho can be funny, but that’s not his goal—nor is he pedaling gotcha zingers or pleas for headlines. The author delivers exactly what he promises in the title, tackling difficult topics with the depth of an engaged cultural thinker and the style of an experienced wordsmith. Throughout, Acho is a friendly guide, seeking to sow understanding even if it means risking just a little discord.
This guide to Black culture for White people is accessible but rarely easy.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-80046-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Essential guidance on proactively navigating the challenges of gender-diverse student bodies.
A comprehensive look at gender-diverse youth in the classroom.
As the transgender student population continues to become more widely visible, navigation tools have become critical for educators and parents alike, notes Key, a veteran gender diversity educator. While written with parents of trans+ children in mind, the book is primarily directed at teachers, administrators, and school staff who directly impact students’ lives on a daily basis. Key shows readers what is involved when a child considers a gender transition process, and he confronts the challenges of gender inclusion, which may be a new topic for some readers. Particularly striking are the stories from parents of trans+ students who are managing the stages of their own apprehension alongside those of their child. Key incorporates learning points on gender vernacular and fighting community stigmatization. Personal anecdotes and timely discussions from school educators complement instructive illustrations and Q&A sections that answer sensitive questions regarding sports participation, bathroom choices, and changing areas. In an encouraging, consistently positive manner, Key addresses the overt political and/or cultural resistance that proliferates within heated debates and public forum discussions, and he asserts that accurate information is the best way to educate and collaborate. He stresses the importance of delivering practical, real-world discussion tools and assistance to parents and educators of trans+ children, who often find themselves without resources, advice, answers, or support to fortify what can often be an overwhelmingly complex experience. Key’s checklists of suggestions successfully bridge the gap between trans+ kids, adults, and school educators with strategically supportive approaches and behaviors. Authoritative yet written in pleasant, straightforward language, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding what it clearly means (and doesn’t mean) to be transgender while ensuring that every student has access to an optimal learning environment free from discrimination.
Essential guidance on proactively navigating the challenges of gender-diverse student bodies.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9780190886547
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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