Think you know New York? Welcome to YONKERS Yonkers!
Author Patricia Vaccarino left her hometown Yonkers at 17 and never looked back, kind of…. She remembers returning to Yonkers to visit her grandmother. Standing in front of the Finast grocery store in Getty Square, she saw a friend she knew from long ago, Donna Gendelman, carrying an armload of books. Vaccarino asked her what she was doing with the books. “I’m returning them to the library,” she said. Vaccarino pointed to the Yonkers City Hall, close to where the library once stood. A gaping hole in the ground was all that remained. The destruction of the library might be the darkest hour in the city’s history. The Carnegie Library was razed to make room for a bridge to New Jersey that never materialized, and yet, the site of a dry cleaner’s owned by a Yonkers City Council Member was preserved.
Patricia Vaccarino never forgot the library that once stood as a beacon of hope and inspired her to become a writer. Now a historical photo of the library is on the cover of her controversial book that sheds light on the true underpinnings of racism. The friendship between gutsy white girl Cookie Colangelo and shy black boy Herman Lynch captures the harsh, sometimes hilarious, realities of being black or white in working-class Yonkers. YONKERS Yonkers! takes place during one of the most turbulent times in American history, 1969-1971. Experience Woodstock, the music of the times, the Vietnam War, a bad President in the White House, upheaval in society, and the fundamental breakdown of social order. The reader will never forget the metaphor and imagery of the owl, the beauty of the Sumac trees, and the powerful portrayal of what it means to be a human being.
Booksellers categorize YONKERS Yonkers! as a crossover to both Adult and Young Adult literary fiction. Available on Amazon, in libraries and in select book stores, the book can also be purchased at the only bookstore in Yonkers, the Yonkers Barnes & Noble.
As an accomplished writer, Ms. Vaccarino has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, articles, speeches, Web content, marketing collateral, and six books.
