A moving account of a community and organization committed to changing young lives.
Part history, part biography, and part testimony of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County.
Edwards Sutter makes her intentions for this work clear in the introduction: “This is not a self-help text, a scientific study of mentorship, or conclusive document about Boys & Girls Clubs of America”; instead, it’s an “honest attempt to demonstrate how caring adults can ignite the bright potential of America’s youth.” True to her word, Edwards Sutter, who served almost a decade as president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Oklahoma County, catalogs the success stories of kids who have moved through the program, her personal journey, and oral testimonies from former co-workers and volunteers. One story charts the club’s influence on Rick Nagel, once a “poor kid with no sense of home,” who went on, after earning a scholarship to Oklahoma University, to visit the White House and head Acorn Growth Companies, a company focused on aerospace, defense, intelligence, and space investments. There is also some historical information about the early days of the organization—originally begun by three women in 1860 in Connecticut who noticed the challenges that kids faced during the Industrial Revolution—and its eventual inclusion of girls. The author’s own path toward her position is described in the form of a vision, a calling from God, and her testimony is moving. Many of her former co-workers and volunteers also have a Christian connection to their service, though there is a wide representation of people interviewed and varied tales of achievement presented throughout. For those interested in reading about the history of one of the leading youth organizations in the country and the dedicated people who pour their hearts into it, there is much to enjoy here. While Edwards Sutter didn’t intend for this to be a self-help book, readers may be inspired to donate their time or money to their own communities by some of the words of volunteer Suzanne Breedlove: “There is more need for Boys & Girls Clubs now than ever in history….Everybody has some time to pour into someone else’s life and to see how far just a little bit of attention and energy goes.”
A moving account of a community and organization committed to changing young lives.Pub Date: June 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781038305251
Page Count: 168
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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