Real Justice: Jailed for Life for Being Black: The Story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter

Gr 8 Up—This latest in this series relates the story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a professional boxer wrongfully convicted of a triple homicide in 1967, whose story was told in the 1975 Bob Dylan song "The Hurricane" and the 1999 film of the same name. Swan engages readers from the first chapter with an account of the murders and Carter's arrest, then goes back to tell the story of Carter's earlier life, including a lengthy description of his bout for the World Middleweight Championship. While in prison, Carter wrote a memoir and one day received a letter from a teen reader who believed in his innocence, jump-starting a successful effort to get him exonerated. Swan's description of the blatant racism of the U.S. legal system, which oppressed Carter and other African Americans, will resonate with those who have followed coverage of the recent incidents in Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore. The gripping topic and low reading level will attract reluctant readers, but the book is marred by misspellings, grammatical errors, editorializing, and awkward, repetitive writing. In addition, many quotes are interspersed in the text but are not cited, though a list of resources is included.