But for Elidee Jones it's a very different story - she and her mother have just moved to Wolf Creek from New York City, a decision made when Elidee didn't get into the elite charter school she had applied to and since her brother is incarcerated in the prison, the move would make visiting him a lot easier. Nora and Lizzie are curious about Elidee, but find her to be unfriendly at first. Nora is also upset because she used to be the fastest runner in gym class, and Elidee beat her timing by 30 seconds running a mile.
But no sooner does Elidee begin school in Wolf Creek then two inmates escape from the prison and everything comes to a halt. People are told to lay low at home while an intense manhunt begins. Lizzie's grandmother is in the hospital so she's staying at Nora's and the two girls can't wait to get out of the house to find out what's happening. At home, Elidee writes letters to her brother Troy and begins to explore her own creative voice through poetry, influenced by Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, a play she saw with her NYC class just before moving.
As the days go by and the inmates aren't caught, the kids return to school and slowly Nora, Lizzie and Elidee form a tentative friendship. But the manhunt, the presence of reporters in town, the stress of thinking the two escapees might be everywhere and anywhere in or around Wolf Creek begins to crack open the friendly façade of the town's residents. Soon, Elidee is noticing racially based comments, behaviors, and microaggressions at school and in town, and experiments with recording her anger in different poetic forms. But Nora is also becoming aware that her beloved Wolf Creek isn't the warm, welcoming place she always thought it was, as she notices how people, including her mother, have an unconscious racism that makes them see Elidee not as a middle school kid, but as a racial stereotype. Thanks to her older brother, however, Nora also begins to understand some of the ways that systemic racism plays out in communities and especially disproportionate number of incarcerations of African Americans, as well as other social injustices faced by people of color in this country.
And Lizzie, well, she learns what it means to have a family member incarcerated when it comes out that the escape was an inside job.
Told through variety of methods - letters, text messages, poetry, recorded conversations, new reports, even comics, and by various people beside Nora, Lizzie and Elidee - Breakout is based on a real prison escape (and being a New Yorker, one that I remember quite well). Elidee's presence and the breakout aren't the main storyline, but really the catalyst that brings out people's true feelings about race and racial profiling. Once they see this happening, it is up to Nora and Lizzie to figure who their own authentic selves are and not Elidee's job to teach them or change them. Elidee's presence in the story is to find her own authentic voice as a poet for expressing her feelings about what she experiences.
Breakout is a fast read, but we get to know the main characters so well. I loved watching Elidee's growth as a poet, Nora growth as an empathic person (who knows what she will do with that) and Lizzie's growth as a journalist. But I really enjoyed seeing Elidee's growth as a poet. I think a lot of people don't realize that copying the style of greats artists is one way to get there. And Elidee has chosen some of the best - Langston Hughes, e.e. cummings, Jacqueline Woodson, Nikki Grimes, and of course Lin Manuel-Miranda. Interestingly, we never really discover why Elidee's brother is in prison and we don't need to know.
Breakout is a timely book and one that should be on every middle grade classroom, and every middle grade library.
This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
Trust Kate Messner to come out with such a timely book. And to handle it so well.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the truth! She's amazing.
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