SILVER WOLVES

But Michael is in prison on Governors Island, their father is institutionalized at a psychiatric center, and Jonah has just been released from juvenile detention. His drawing skills earn him a spot at Harlem Heights’ High School of Music and Art, the chance of a lifetime for a boy from the South Bronx. At M & A, Jonah, who’s Jewish, is surrounded by the Ivy League–bound elite. The charismatic chair of the English department becomes his ally, and he starts dating Merle Messenger, a bold, academically gifted polio survivor whose disability is handled with care as simply one aspect of her life. Invited into Merle’s world of wealth and culture, Jonah must balance new opportunities with what he owes the gang and community. The book paints a meticulous, detailed historical portrait of New York City. Jonah is an observant and principled first-person narrator, but the real stars are the supporting cast members. This young adult debut by acclaimed writer Charyn is populated by lovable, complicated, wholly realized people who inhabit a world that feels full and bustling. The author portrays the complexities of Jonah’s life—carceral systems fail him and the people he cares about—but he avoids didacticism, instead offering an almost dreamlike trip that unfolds at a measured pace through the events that shape Jonah into the young man he’ll become.