For Hiro Savage, who makes himself heardPP
For C.O., a sun so bright it leaves no shadowsMB
For RhiaAT
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Text copyright 2018 by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso. Illustrations copyright 2018 by Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. PENGUIN and PENGUIN WORKSHOP are trademarks of Penguin Books Ltd. WHO HQ & Design is a registered trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 9780448488684 (paperback)
ISBN 9781524788513 (library binding)
ISBN 9781524790141 (ebook)
Version_1
Contents
Who Is Bono?
On March 2, 2007, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)an American organization that fights for civil rights and justicepresented a special award to a rock star. His name was Paul Hewson, but everyone called him Bono. He was being honored for the work he had done to raise money for the poor and sick, especially in Africa.
When Bono took the stage, he wore a dark suit and the oversize sunglasses he was famous for. His band, U2, was one of the most successful groups in music history. They played all over the world to sold-out stadium crowds. Theyd won twenty-two Grammy Awards. Their records had sold millions of copies. They had fans everywhere they went.
But it didnt start out that way. Bono was born an ordinary boy in the Irish city of Dublin, where people who went to Catholic churches did not always get along with people who went to Protestant churches. Bono asked himself what God meant in a world where people suffered and wars were fought. He had taken all his questions and doubts and put them into song lyrics. When Bono took the stage, he didnt talk about rock and roll. He talked about people who had nothing. People who were suffering. People who needed help. And he talked about one of the most important forces in his life: God. After all his years of questioning, Bono had learned one thing for sure: God wanted people to help one another.
The poor are where God lives, Bono said. God... is with the poor. And God is with us, if we are with them. Bono lived the kind of glamorous life he could only dream about as a boy. He had become a star. But once he had that life, he discovered there were more important things he needed to do. Not for himself, but for the world.
Paul David Hewson was born in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, on May 10, 1960. His parents were Bob and Iris Hewson. He had one brother, Norman, who was seven years older. His father, Bob, worked for the post office.
Bob and Iris were both Christian, but they were different kinds of Christians. Bob was Catholic, and Iris was Protestant. In Dublin, it was very unusual for Catholics and Protestants to marry. The two groups did not get along. In Northern Ireland, fighting between Catholics and Protestants often became violent. Even as a young boy, Paul wondered why Christianity, which taught that people should love one another, made people hate one another.
The Troubles
In the 1100s, England began to take control of the country of Ireland. They wanted to rule all the nations of the British IslesEngland, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The Irish fought back. At that time both England and Ireland were Catholic countries. In the north, the fighting was particularly fierce. So England sent its own citizens to settle in Northern Ireland. Those people remained loyal to England. In the 1500s, the king declared the Church of England to be separate from the Catholic Church. Ireland was still a mostly Catholic country, except in the north, where so many descendants of English colonists lived.
In 1921, Northern Ireland officially became a separate country, and a part of the United Kingdom, which included England, Scotland, and Wales. But some people in Northern Ireland did not want to live under British rule. They started a group called the IRA (Irish Republican Army) that rebelled against the English. From 1968 to 1998, including during Bonos childhood, the conflict in Northern Ireland was called the Troubles.
Paul did believe in fighting for some things. On his first day of school, a boy bit one of Pauls friends. Paul shoved the bully into a nearby railing!
When Paul got a Batman costume, he walked around his neighborhood telling everyone he was going to fight crime. Some older boys laughed at him. They pulled his Batman mask down over his eyes so he couldnt see anything.
The school that Paul went to was for Protestant children. He and his brother went to a Protestant church on Sundays with their mother while their Catholic father waited outside.
As Paul got older he started to think school was boring. Sometimes he didnt go at all. He just walked around the city of Dublin. His parents started to worry about his grades. When Paul was twelve, a new school opened near his house. It was called Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
It was different from other Dublin schools because it accepted all kidsProtestant and Catholic, boys and girls. The students at Mount Temple didnt wear uniforms, which was very unusual in Ireland. Pauls parents thought this new school might be a good place for him.
