[CALIBK12] Richie's Picks: IF I GROW UP

[BudNotBuddy at aol.com]

Richie's Picks: IF I GROW UP by Todd  Strasser, Simon and Schuster, February 
2009, 224 p., ISBN: 1-4169-2523-6  

"By the age of twelve, seeing dead folks was nothing  new.  The gangbanger 
who lay glassy-eyed in a pool of blood in the  lobby.  The lady who was stabbed 
and crawled down four flights of stairs,  leaving a long, brownish red trail 
before she bled out.  The crusty old  wino who froze to death on a bench."
 
I've now lived a longer life than had the late Jerry  Garcia.  And at 53 and 
a half, I have still never once  seen someone (other than a law enforcement 
official) in  public with a loaded handgun.  Nor, in my entire life -- in real 
life  -- have I ever seen crack cocaine.  Nor have I ever seen -- in real life 
--  the dead victim of a violent crime.
 
There, but for the grace of God, go I.
 
I grew up in a suburbia where I was permitted,  from the age of five, to walk 
unaccompanied from a nice single-family home  to a series of safe, clean, 
well-financed schools, and to be out on the  streets at all hours of the day and 
night.  Back in the late  Sixties, as a middle school student, I did sometimes 
suffer the indignities of  being called names and of having (in the days 
before students used backpacks) my  books and loose leaf binder shoved out from 
beneath my arm while walking from  class to class.  Such experiences were 
traumatic for me as a  sensitive, oldest sibling.  But I was never in any mortal 
danger as a  child or adolescent.
 
Far too many young people in our country are inner-city  dwellers who have it 
quite differently: living beneath the poverty level in  dangerous homes in 
dangerous communities, attending dangerous schools, and are  far too used to 
being in daily contact with gangs, guns, drugs, fears, and  premature deaths.  A 
disproportionate percentage of these young  people are members of minority 
groups.
 
"It seemed like everything in Washington Carver was held  together with tape. 
 The cracks in the grimy windows, the pages in the  tattered old textbooks, 
the pull-down maps in the front of the room -- all held  in place with 
yellowed, peeling tape."
 
I am a life-long fan of learning history.  It helps  me understand why and 
how America is how it is.  This  doesn't mean that studying history doesn't 
often lead me to feelings of  anger and despair.  What might it take today  to 
repair things for those who have gotten stuck -- for  generations -- with the 
short end of the American Dream?  
 
Guaranteed that in the coming years, some fortunate,  twenty-first century 
middle school kids (undoubtedly in a well-financed,  suburban school district 
somewhere) are going to end up with a teacher  who turns them onto IF I GROW UP 
and leads them through an extended study of  American history focused on why 
such dangerous and dysfunctional  neighborhoods/ communities/ housing projects 
have come to exist in the  so-called greatest and wealthiest nation in the 
history of the world, and  why such neighborhoods have not only perpetuated but 
have  continued to grow as those on the outside say, "No new taxes, you're  on 
your own."
 
 
"Wham!  Jules swung his arm out hard, catching  Terrell square in the face.  
My friend fell back, and the pistol clattered  to the ground about five feet 
away.  Jules rose to his hands and  knees.  He looked at the gun; then he 
looked at me.  
"I knew what he was thinking.
"He lunged for the gun.  For a kid who'd just been shot  in the foot, he 
moved pretty fast.
"But I was faster, scooping up the gun and aiming it down  at him.  This was 
the first time I'd ever held a real gun, and even  though it was small, it 
weighed more than I'd expected.  My heart was  hammering and my hand trembled, 
but I willed it to stop.  
"Still on his hands and knees, Jules looked up at me  uncertainly.  Then, out 
of nowhere, a different sensation took hold.   With that gun in my hand, I 
began to feel powerful in a way I'd never felt  before."
 
Todd Strasser's IF I GROW UP offers a horrific view of an  inner city society 
that is dominated by gang activity.  The absence of  inner city dialect and 
objectionable language makes this a  high-interest book that can, indeed, be 
shared in the middle  school classroom.
 
The story is told by DeShawn, a talented  student, insightful young man, and 
decent human being, from  the time he is twelve through his  being seventeen.  
DeShawn's mother had been the innocent victim  of gang violence; he now lives 
in a crowded one bedroom apartment with  his grandmother, his sister Nia, and 
Nia's ever-growing brood of fatherless  offspring.  No matter what he does or 
does not do, DeShawn is dragged  deeper and deeper into the same morass as 
those around him.
 
As with his story about homeless kids, CAN'T GET THERE  FROM HERE, Todd 
Strasser gives us an in-your-face look at how the other half  lives.  IF I GROW UP 
is a hell of a story for all of us who have no clue as  to what kind of daily 
lives these young people in the projects experience, and  how their dreams are 
beaten down.    
 
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy at aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks






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