What They Found: Love on 145th Street
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that these are stories about life in the inner city and in Afghanistan. There is plenty of violence, sex, and drugs, though nothing is described, just referred to.
Families who read this book could discuss how people in hard times and with difficult lives still manage to find the good in life. What are their inner resources? What personal strengths or characteristics are necessary to persevere in tough situations? Does everyone have them? How do you get them?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
Only in some of these stories does "love" mean romantic love. Veteran author Walter Dean Myers is interested in the many variations of love -- parents and children, friends and relations, siblings. Even in those that are about men and women (or boys and girls) they're more about the caring than the romance, and the many ways that caring shows itself. Even though these are short stories, there's an emotional depth to them that is, at times, breathtaking.
Unlike authors who awkwardly try to reproduce street dialect in a vain attempt to seem authentic, Myers can make his characters real and vivid without swearing, and include the realities of sex, drugs, and violence without wallowing in them or resorting to graphic descriptions. He has been writing, and winning awards, for a long time now, and this book shows both the heart of a dyed-in-the-wool humanist, and the confidence that comes only with experience.
From The Book
He was easier with them than he was with the Center staff, or with me. He talked to them softly, asking them what they did in their spare time, what teams they liked. And he listened. As he spoke to them I saw how they edged toward him. Some touched his shoulder or his arm. I wished I hadn't made the remark about it being easier for him to talk to them than to adults.
Plot Summary:
In a series of related short stories that mostly take place in one neighborhood in Harlem, but also follow one character to battle in Afghanistan, this companion volume to 145th Street explores how loves blossoms in a variety of ways, even in the most difficult situations. Some examples: a very young girl struggles to care for her sick mother and even younger brother; a hardened street thug can open up when helping disabled children, but not with the girl he loves; and a teen considers holding up an old woman to buy his son a birthday present.
Related Books:
Other Books by Walter Dean Myers:
145th Street
The Glory Field
The Journal of Joshua Loper, A Black Cowboy
Monster
Handbook for Boys
The Dream Bearer
African-Americans in the City:
Circle of Gold by Candy Dawson Boyd
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Rite of Passage by Richard Wright
The Shimmershine Queens by Camille Yarbrough
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Tyrell by Coe Booth
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Sexual ContentReferences to making love, homosexuality, a naked girl tries (unsuccessfully) to seduce a boy, teen pregnancy, a teen has sex with an adult (not described). |
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ViolenceMentions of child abuse, fighting, gang initiation, a knife fight, and a stabbing in the eye; several people have or seek guns; a beating with a pool cue; IEDs and snipers in Afghanistan; a young man is killed in battle. |
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LanguageOne use of "p---y" to mean a weakling. |
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Social BehaviorMuslims are referred to as "rag heads," which is compared to the N word. |
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CommercialismOne mention of Armani. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoReferences to drugs and drug abuse including crack and marijuana; teens are stoned and addicted. Some cigarette smoking. |
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