Give this to fans of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give. VERDICT A strong addition to the current wave of excellent social justice–themed contemporary realistic titles. This timely title will provoke much-needed discussion.

In the same vein, the diversity of this title also makes it shine: sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, race, and ethnicity are all portrayed in Oshiro’s inner-city Oakland setting. There are no good models of white ally-ship, and the title is stronger for this fact. Part sweet love story, part social justice commentary, this title begs to be read and discussed. The heartbreaking last lines are a call to action there is no resolved, happy ending. Tragedy strikes during a planned school walk out, and Moss must stand up and fight for what is right. Moss’s group of friends is affected and they begin organizing. Both new policies cause immediate issues for innocent students. As Moss starts his junior year, metal detectors and random locker searches arrive at West Oakland High. He struggles with self-consciousness and body image, and his dating life as a large, gay, African American male teen has been nonexistent-until he meets Javier, an undocumented immigrant from a different school, and begins to fall in love. He’s witnessed his father’s death at the hands of the police and has anxiety, but his friends and mother help him through panic attacks. Gr 8 Up –High schooler Moss is a survivor. The same is true of the fact that Moss has several techniques given to him by a therapist for dealing with them, including sorting through a “Rolodex” of happy memories of his father, without which he cannot get the sound of the gun or the sight of the blood out of his head. In this sense, Moss’s panic attacks are symbolically significant, highlighting the lasting effects of police brutality and the fact that victims of violence and murder by the police extend far beyond those actually killed or injured by them.OSHIRO, Mark. The fact that Esperanza is so used to them and so well-versed in how to respond helps to highlight both how regular they are and what a debilitating and significant effect they have on his life.

Indeed, he collapses within the first chapters of the book after being triggered by a protest against the police murdering another unarmed person of color. Since witnessing his father’s murder six years earlier, Moss’s life has been marked by trauma, manifesting in anxiety, nightmares, and especially panic attacks.

Anger is a gift by mark oshiro