American Street

As someone who grew up in a safe, suburban, and wealthy town, this book let me glimpse into the lives that many people have to live through. An important book if you want your kids to have a look into cultures different then theirs. I made my rating 13+ despite the moderate use of profanity - your kids have heard all these words by middle school, and this book is not glorifying the way they are used. Censoring this book from their reading collection because of language would be censoring them from learning about the very real world presented in the story. Also, not to call out anyone in particular, but I do find it funny how a parent would find the swearing problematic, but not the violence.

I wasn't a fan of this book. The story was decent but the author managed to make it 324 pages by adding a ton of inappropriate language and content. I did think the story was interesting at times, but overall it was too much swearing, teen drug and alcohol abuse, and violence for my taste, and definitely too much for my 8th grader.

There is a lot of violence, talk of sex, and one mild sex scene. The language would be appropriate for the scenes described, and it’s a lot. But a story of immigration, the complications, the culture shock - all fantastic. And important to hear. Loved how Fabiola's voudou was woven in everything.