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Book Reviewed by:In this poignant mixed voice, mixed form collection of interconnected prose, poems and stories, teen characters, their families, and their communities grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst fear and loss, these New York City teens prevail with love, resilience and hope. From the award-winning author of Chlorine Sky and Vinyl Moon.
Grief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.
In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances:
From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chorus: Wild Fire
If you listen closely, you can hear their TV screens pour from the windowpanes, under the apartment doors, and out onto the streets. Everybody is listening to the news, and no one is listening to their hearts.
I am Hyacinth. Mi a har best fren, Electra.
And we're just two city girls ...
Suh yuh sey, Ms. Trini-to-the-bone!
Okay, okay. We're two city girls with island roots. We met in the foster care system, after one too many fights took us from our families' homes and placed us as roomies in a group home slash detention center, wearing blue crew neck sweatshirts and matching sweatpants with one-size-too-small slippers. We sat in that weird-smelling facility until we were moved to neighboring foster care homes. Some might say we have a chip on our shoulders because we talk the truth loud. But really, we are over being talked down to, talked over, and completely ignored.
Fi Chuu.
You can say that being height-challenged brought Electra and me closer. Because for some reason, ...
In A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, author Mahogany L. Browne has built an intricate web of disparate yet interconnected lives, a structure that mirrors the book's central idea: that even during a time of great isolation, we remained connected to the people around us in small yet important ways...continued
Full Review
(751 words)
(Reviewed by Callum McLaughlin).
COVID-19 has had an immense impact on people of all ages, in all stages of life, and in all parts of the world. Mahogany L. Browne's novel A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe focuses on the various effects on young people's lives, which are still being felt and studied today. Along with the widespread death, disability, and legitimate fear caused by the virus itself, these include the sometimes more complex social effects of isolation and lockdown.
One big impact that COVID had on young people was on their mental health. According to a 2024 report, anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents doubled globally after the first year of the pandemic. In the US in 2021, 41% of young people reported feeling persistently sad or ...
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Wherever they burn books, in the end will also burn human beings.
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