Book Review: All Day by Liza Jessie Peterson

All Day

By Liza Jessie Peterson

All Day is a book about the author and her time teaching young men at Riker’s Island prison in New York.  We were sent a review copy of the book so that we could write an honest review of the book.

This is an important story that needs to be told. The author is in a unique position to tell the story as only an insider could tell it.

All Day tells us of all the injustices in the alleged criminal justice system and how minorities often get a raw deal.  We also learn that if these young men lived anywhere else in the country, they might not enter into the criminal justice system as they are often failed by the system that is supposed to support and nurture them.

The book is informative and enlightening.

However, the book All Day is full of foul words and takes God’s name in vain 6 different times.  One of these times is really baffling as it is used in the very next sentence after the author writes a prayer.  Our readership is primarily Fundamental and/or Charismatic Christian and they want to know whenever God’s Holy name is used in vain.

It is also particularly odd that the author calls her students foul-mouthed and potty-mouthed several times in the book.  Once, when handing out a writing assignment to her students, one of her “Rug Rats” as she calls them, asked if they could use profane words. She tells him that profanity should only be used as an exclamation to underscore a point. However throughout the book, when quoting herself, she uses many foul words.  We point this out as an inconsistency in her message.

We feel that this is an important story that needs to be told.  When the author quotes her students, including the profane words, she is setting the scene and letting her readers see a little of what it is like to be in the prison with these students.  

We do, however, feel that it is very inconsistent for her to call her students foul-mouthed and potty-mouthed while at the same time quoting herself as using the same words.

Again, this is an important story that needs to be told. Unless those in power understand how the system doesn’t work now, they will not be able to fix it, if in fact, they wish to do so.

 All Day is available in hardcover and in the Kindle format.

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