Riot

Do you feel the military draft is fair? This book written by Walter Dean Myers looks at the consequences of the military draft during the Civil War. There was a clause which allowed young men to avoid being drafted if they could pay $300 to someone else who was desperate for money and didn't mind serving. It may not seem like a great deal of money to people of our time period, but for some very poor people, this was a great sum of money.
But what happens if you are drafted to serve, you don't want to serve, and you don't have $300 to pay someone else? Well, that is the situation in New York City in 1863. The Irish immigrants are being drafted to serve and don't have the money to buy their way ont. Feeling this is grossly unfair, they begin to take out their frustration on the colored people in New York. It leads to rioting in the streets.
Written in screenplay format, the author tells us the story of fifteen-year-0ld Claire--half Irish and half Afro-American. If you want a good, short historical fiction read, Riot is the perfect choice!'