Purple Daze by Sherry Shahan
Meet Ziggy, Mickey, Cheryl, Nancy, Don, and Phil, a group of six close-knit friends growing up in suburban Los Angeles in 1965. Through journal entries, notes, interconnected free verse and traditional poems, the six friends reveal their intense experiences and feelings about the world that is unfolding before them. Draft numbers are increasing, Malcolm X is assassinated, and the Vietnam War is escalating just as activism through the peace movement is revving up. As the United States is undergoing cultural and political revolutions, the lives of these six friends endure their own dramatic changes.
PURPLE DAZE is informed by Shahan’s own experiences growing up in this frenzied period. Using letters she found from a friend stationed in Vietnam and a well-documented timeline of the year, Shahan is able to conjure up the raw emotions of the era. Each character reflects on how they are navigating the ever-changing world with deep honesty and raw emotion making the themes in PURPLE DAZE as relevant today as they were almost 50 years ago.
Again, I love the 60's feel of the cover, and Purple Daze definitely sounds like teen drama -- with a twist. Exciting, no? ;)
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