Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Attack of the Black Rectangles

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write.

When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake. But then when he and his friends discover what the missing words are, he's outraged.

Someone in his school is trying to prevent kids from reading the full story.

But who?

Even though his unreliable dad tells him to not get so emotional about a book (or anything else), Mac has been raised by his mom and grandad to call out things that are wrong. He and his friends head to the principal's office to protest the censorship... but her response doesn't take them seriously.

So many adults want Mac to keep his words to himself.

Mac's about to see the power of letting them out.

In Attack of the Black Rectangles, acclaimed author Amy Sarig King shows all the ways truth can be hard... but still worth fighting for.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Pete Cross heads a team of skilled narrators in this exploration of how censorship impacts the lives of young people. Mac Delaney is disturbed when his friend Marci shows him the blacked-out sections of their new reading assignment, THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC, a real-life book about WWII and anti-Semitism in Poland by Jane Yolen. When the kids' concerns are dismissed, they will have to fight to make their voices heard. Cross takes center stage as Mac, imbuing his voice with Mac's longing for intellectual truth. Cross pitches the sixth grader's deeply felt emotions perfectly. Jane Yolen narrates a brief, effective chapter as herself, while the full cast of additional narrators take on the voices of townspeople arguing via letters to the editor about petty local ordinances. N.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • School Library Journal

      Starred review from January 1, 2023

      Gr 5 Up-The timing of King's latest is presciently superb as she presents three sixth graders fighting book censorship. Her hero is Mac Delaney, sensitively ciphered by Cross with gentle energy and justifiable frustration. Mac lives with his mother and grandfather, while his erratic, angry father unreliably visits. Mac's buoyed by close friendships with Denis and Marci (who just might also be his first crush). When the class begins to read Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic, Mac notices the titular black rectangles have effaced certain words throughout every student's copy. Of course, Mac and his friends want to read the whole, untampered book; too many adults disagree. Saturday morning protests lead to school board meetings where the children are finally heard. VERDICT A full cast-including King-enhances Cross's narration, delightfully voicing multiple opinionated locals; the best surprise proves to be Yolen herself.

      Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading