Riot by Walter Dean Myers 164 pages

Walter Dean Myers, prolific African-American author, enjoys experimenting with different prose formats. He uses a screenplay format to take readers back in time to 1863, New York City. The heroine is fifteen-year-old Claire, the daughter of an Irish mother and a black father who gets caught up in the Draft Riot in lower Manhattan. Irish immigrants, furious about the federal draft and the Civil War lash out against the wealthy and blacks fearing the loss of their lives and jobs. Claire had been sheltered by her parents and is shocked to learn of the hatred of ignorant bigots. I don't know if Myers intentionally wrote this to mimic early melodramas or not. Reading this, I could totally imagine it shot in black and white with gothic subtitles replacing sound. The characters seem somewhat stereotypical. This is certainly a different way to learn about a slice of American history. I can also see a creative history teacher having her class use this script as readers theater.