{"id":590,"date":"2017-08-17T16:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T22:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=590"},"modified":"2017-09-10T15:48:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T21:48:18","slug":"book-armstrong-and-charlie-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/17\/book-armstrong-and-charlie-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Armstrong and Charlie (2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ArmstrongArmstrong and Charlie
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2017
\nAuthor: Steven B. Frank
\nLength: 304 pages<\/p>\n

***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY***<\/p>\n

With race relations where they are today, it\u2019s almost somewhat jarring to know that things haven\u2019t changed much in over four decades. In an attempt to educate the next generation about racism, Steven B. Frank\u2019s\u00a0Armstrong and Charlie<\/em>\u00a0is an excellent start. While I would like to think that race relations have improved since the mid-1970\u2019s, there are plenty of lessons available in this book that are applicable today. Still, racism can be a two-way street, and I couldn\u2019t help but think of the\u00a0Avenue Q<\/em>\u00a0song, \u201cEveryone\u2019s a Little Bit Racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the obvious racial undertones to this book,\u00a0Armstrong and Charlie<\/em>\u00a0is a fantastic book about growing up. Aimed at kids on the cusp of growing into adults, the book masterfully represents moments of peer pressure where the characters have to decide what the correct response should be. Not only does it have valuable lessons about lying, stealing, bullying, and grieving, but it includes a few moments of romance as well. As boys progress into their teenage years, these moments are sweet, but also emphasize the whirlwind of emotions and hormones about to befall all kids of that age.<\/p>\n

The best part of\u00a0Armstrong and Charlie<\/em>\u00a0is how the narrative splits between the two, titular boys. With the reader knowing the background of each individual, the reasons behind the biases and social friction come to light well before the boys realize that people are deeper than they appear on the surface. Somebody might be poor and act out in spite of it. Others might have family or personal problems that they\u2019re hiding via and underneath a mask of toughness. Once we finally get to know someone, we find they\u2019re not nearly as different as we once thought.<\/p>\n

A fantastic book about 1970\u2019s race relations that everyone should read, I give\u00a0Armstrong and Charlie<\/em>\u00a05.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armstrong and Charlie Year: 2017 Author: Steven B. Frank Length: 304 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY*** With race relations where they are today, it\u2019s almost somewhat jarring to know that things haven\u2019t changed much in over four decades. In an attempt to educate the next generation about racism, Steven B. Frank\u2019s\u00a0Armstrong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,54],"tags":[349,776,775,55,97,339,308,8,777],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-5-0-stars","category-book","tag-349","tag-armstrong-charlie","tag-armstrong-and-charlie","tag-book","tag-giveaway","tag-goodreads","tag-goodreads-giveaway","tag-review","tag-steven-b-frank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}