Chameleon

Chameleon

By: Charles R. Smith Jr.

384p

Candlewick Press

ISBN-10: 0763630853
ISBN-13: 978-0763630850


Annotation:
The summer before starting highschool in inner city Los Angeles, fourteen year old Shawn grapples with his first experience of love, the complicated bonds of friends and family, and the reality of street gang violence.

Summary:

Shawn is an intelligent and athletically gifted teenager on the cusp of his high school career, who is enjoying his last days of summer. Living in Carson, and traveling to Compton every weekday to be watched over by his alcoholic aunt offers Shawn a lot of free time. Time that is spent playing basketball with his group of friends and maneuvering through the dangerous streets. His days are plagued with the quest for free food and constant “color checks” to make sure that neither he nor any of his friends are wearing any red or blue for fear of being attacked.

During his summer, he is forced to reconsider his future after he and his friends are beat-up by a group of Pirus (red) after being mistook for Crypts (blue), when he is offered the opportunity to go to his local high school that is free of gang activity and therefor free of the stresses, instead of the school in Compton, he has a decision to make. Spending the rest of the summer trying to make the decision that could affect the rest of his life and more importantly his love life with his crush Marisol.

This book is well written even if the main character is wise beyond his years. Smith does drop cultural slang and young adults may be interested in this novel because of the local setting. Teen readers who enjoy the writing styles of Walter Dean Myers will quickly fall in love with Smith's writing style. This novels with hip-hop slang and realness that is hard to find in many other teen novels.

Autobiography of My Dead Brother

Autobiography of My Dead Brother
By: Walter Dean Myers

p. 212
Publication HarperTempest

ISBN-10: 0060582936
ISBN-13: 978-0060582937

Annotation:
Jesse uses his sketchbook and comic strips to make sense of his home in Harlem and the loss of a close friendship. And so Jesse fills his sketchbook with drawings and portraits of his blood brother, Rise, and his comic strip, Spodi Roti and Wise, as he makes sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood where drive-bys, vicious gangs, and abusive cops are everyday realities.


Summary
In this novel that is perhaps too real, we are introduced to Jesse, and his blood brother Rise. Through the actions of both boys; the cautious and careful Jesse and the more risk taking and dangerous Rise, we are able to explore the quintessential Harlem lifestyle and all the stuff that comes with it. As we are introduced to the story, the setting is a funeral for both boys. We are led to examine and discover what actions led to this tragic event.

Jesse who has always looked up to Rise who was only two years older has now begun to notice distance between him and his blood brother who has begun hanging out with the local gang and selling drugs. As Jesse is pushed further and further away he begins to explore sides of himself that have long been dormant. Perhaps the most interesting side is his artistic ability. Through his art he is able to express himself and create a world in which he and Rise are still the friends he longs for.

This gritty novel is real and rough. Teens will love the tempo and feel of the novel as well as the underlying story which is more about expression than an actual plot. Perfect for those reluctant readers who prefer a more realistic novel.

Monster

Monster

By: Walter Dean Myers

p. 281
Publisher Scholastic

ISBN-10: 0064407314
ISBN-13: 978-0064407311

Annotation: While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken

Summary:
Imagine you find yourself on trial for murder. What did you do to end up in such a dire situation? How could your life have gone so incredibly wrong? What if you were actually innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time? These are only a few of the questions that Steve Harmon asks himself. Steve an aspiring film maker, tells us his story in a style more like a film script than a novel. This literary work explores prisons and jail in ways many of us will never truly experience.

We are introduced to a world of harsh realities and cruelty. With such lines as "The best time to cry is at night, when the lights are out and someone is screaming for help" we are very much aware that this is no ordinary Young Adult novel. This novel will stay with you for years to come and constantly remind you that prison is a place you never want to have to stay in.

Through this work we must explore the ideas of peer pressure, and culpability to truly understand if Steve is indeed the "monster" that everyone views him as.