Book : The Degenerates - Mann, J. Albert

-Titulo Original : The Degenerates

-Fabricante :

Atheneum Books For Young Readers

-Descripcion Original:

“Respectful, unflinching, and eye-opening.” -Kirkus Reviews “Historical fiction that not only depicts a cruel, horrifying reality but also the strength and courage of the people who had to endure it.” -Booklist In the tradition of Girl, Interrupted, this fiery historical novel follows four young women in the early 20th century whose lives intersect when they are locked up by a world that took the poor, the disabled, the marginalized-and institutionalized them for life. The Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded is not a happy place. The young women who are already there certainly don’t think so. Not Maxine, who is doing everything she can to protect her younger sister Rose in an institution where vicious attendants and bullying older girls treat them as the morons, imbeciles, and idiots the doctors have deemed them to be. Not Alice, either, who was left there when her brother couldn’t bring himself to support a sister with a club foot. And not London, who has just been dragged there from the best foster situation she’s ever had, thanks to one unexpected, life-altering moment. Each girl is determined to change her fate, no matter what it takes. Review “The author portrays the movements prejudice, racism, and violence with brutal realism; an authors note explains that the doctors dehumanizing dialogue comes verbatim from real medical notes. Crucially, she reminds readers that such prejudice still exists. . . . Respectful, unflinching, and eye-opening.” -- Kirkus Reviews “Mann details the casual cruelty of the administration and the blatant racism and prejudice (one girl is African American, another physically disabled) underlying their medical assessments, but she interjects the bleakness with glimmers of hope, from Maxine and Alice’s relationship to London’s caring for the institute’s babies to Rose’s resilience even in the face of serious illness. . . . Somberly poignant.” -- BCCB “This is the kind of historical fiction that not only depicts a cruel, horrifying reality but also the strength and courage of the people who had to endure it. Mann effectively renders the details of a time and place, but more important, has created four complex characters who draw strength and inspiration from one another. With its examination of disability, prejudice, abuse, and resiliency, this will change the way readers look at how labels are used, as well as how theyre wielded.” -- Booklist About the Author J. Albert Mann is the author of several middle grade and young adult novels, including The Degenerates and What Every Girl Should Know. She has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in writing for children and young adults. She prefers books with unhappy endings to happy ones. Visit her at JAlbertMann . Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 London couldn’t stop thinking about the girl in the iron lung. The metal barrel had been keeping the girl alive now for two weeks. It was the same amount of time that London realized she had been keeping something alive inside her. One had nothing to do with the other, London knew, but she couldn’t help connecting them. Three miles away a girl was encased in a machine that was pushing air into and pulling air out of her lungs, tethering her to life. Just thinking about it made London suck in a deep breath of chilly October air as she walked down Chelsea, knowing that this air was sinking deep inside her… tethering her to a life, a very small life. Better to think about the machine. She pictured a bellows-like tool shoving air into each of the girl’s lungs, which London imagined looked like the pigs’ bladders hanging out to dry at Flannery’s butcher shop on Decatur. The iron lung fascinated her. Not the polio part. London knew sickness well enough. Sickness had taken both her parents, along with thousands of others, ten years before, when the flu had swept through Boston. The only memory s