Homeboyz by Alan Sitomer (mature themes)
Instead of prison, Teddy Anderson, who was arrested while trying to avenge his sister's accidental death from a gangrelated drive-by shooting, is sentenced to community service where he must mentor Micah, a 12-year-old gangsta wannabe.
I thought that the book Homeboyz was very exciting in that it kept my attention throughout the whole book. A connection I have made from this book to current events is that like Tina, many teens are involved in gang violence. Unfortunately for Tina, it led to her death. The character Teddy Anderson reminds me of Montressor from the Cask of the Amontillado because he was thirsty for revenge. The only difference between these two characters is that Montressor got revenge the way he planned it, Teddy did not. One element of the book that I disliked is how the character of Teddy seemed equivalent to a superhero. I thought that all of his special abilities were unrealistic. A question I have is what would have happened if Teddy didn’t get arrested when he first tried to get revenge on the wrong people?
ReplyDelete(A.D., 10th grade, ATC)
I believe Homeboyz is an excellent book by Alan Sitomer. This book demonstrates real life experience in a fictional story. It shows how a loving brother copes with the misfortunate death of his younger sister caused by a drive-by. The theme of book is basically revenge isn’t always so sweet. The main charcter Teddy learns that the hard way. Honestly, I think the author’s message to his readers was shown succesfully. A dendrite connection I make in refernce to the book and real life is how a lot of people nowadays lose their life for no reason. I think the fact that the Tina, the younger sister in the book who was killed is sad. The girl was just rying to buy a ice cream from the ice cream truck. And she was so young. I wish I could ask the author did this book relate in any way to his life? I would recommend this book to any and everyone. Because it is just that good!
ReplyDelete(a.a.d., 10th grade, ATC)
I thought the book Homeboyz was an amazing book to read. It captivated me in such a way, that sometimes it was rather difficult to put the book down. This book was enthralling and fascinating in many ways. Like for example how Teddy was able help the at-risk boy, Micah, and have a friendly relationship that soon grew to be something more special. In this book, many of the characters are involved in gang violence, a lot of people died, like Tina. This book showed how gang violence can affect families, destroy homes and hurt the people that you love. It made the plot of the story seem very realistic, since there are people that are going through what Teddy’s family were going through. In the beginning, I was very reluctant to read the book, I thought it was going to be just another book about gangs and guns; some of my friends did not even think of reading the book, just because of the cover. But it really surprised me, how I could sometimes relate to Teddy’s actions. Though I really wonder why the author chose to write this book. Was this something that he or his family went through? I would really recommend this book to anyone who wants to read just for fun. I think it is a great book to read since it shows many aspects of the culture of some people. Not only is it very enjoyable, but also you will be able to connect to it.
ReplyDelete(M.G., 10th grade, ATC)