I think a lot of times teens feel powerless and alone...like no one is really listening to them or takes what they have to say or how they feel seriously. It can be a very lonely time.
Robin Bowman's It's Complicated: The American Teenager is a very moving and empowering book. It shows these kids as survivors. Their stories are really amazing: Shavaris from Brooklyn trying to move his family out of the projects, Hilario the migrant worker from Honduras, April from Missouri who's mom gave her meth so she'd clean the house (WTF?!?!), Jassmond from Watts who made it to the 12th grade, Faduma and Said who escaped from Somalia, Charlotte the visually impaired football player...I could go on and on. Most of these stories are moving and some make you want to roll your eyes but they're all very honest. I think teens would like this book because of those qualities: there are stories they can relate to, stories that will make them indignant, stories that will make them say "that's so messed up." I think teens--just like everyone else--appreciate honesty and that's what these stories are.
OK, so I guess most of cannot relate to Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's Grace After Midnight but it's still a very compelling story. I don't think she was glamorizing the street life but she wasn't exactly begging for forgiveness. She was just telling her story. (Side note: quite a few of the actors on The Wire have a criminal past--Melvin Williams who portrayed the deacon was a major dealer back in the day.)Her story is one of survival--born addicted to crack to a crack addict mother, years in prison, and life on the street. I think it's an empowering story because she survived. I also think her attitude toward her sexuality was very empowering. She accepted that aspect of herself and never felt like it was "wrong" or "bad." I think I'd recommend this book to fans of The Wire, urban teens, and teens looking for something different. Teens like tragedy and drama...this book has that.
I watched Home Rooms from the 4th season of The Wire. This season focusing in on the kids and the schools is so brutal. It's like being kicked in the stomach, chest, and face repeatedly. These kids have everything in the world stacked against them. They are constantly surrounded by violence and drugs and death that they don't even blink an eye when one girls slices the check of a fellow classmate. It scary to think about but I think there are plenty of teens out there who could relate to these stories. Over the summer HBO was airing a documentary about the school system in West Baltimore and it gave one of the most depressing statistics: they lose 50% of their freshmen class by the end of the year. Kids drop out, deal drugs, get pregnant and don't finish school, or they end up dead. There are very few parents around...many of these kids are being raised by grandparents or they're raising themselves and their younger siblings. I don't think the teens in The Wire are empowered at all. Watching this episode and seeing Delonda (Namond's mom) made me think of the mom from Hotlanta. (I totally had to get the 2nd book in the series. I needed to know what was going to happen with those Duke twins and their drama.)
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I agree with you on all counts here. It's Complicated is such a mosaic of the teens in the United States. For me, I love how it has the capability to widen anyone's eyes as to the variety of people and cultures who live in this country. It's a book that everyone should read, in my mind.
ReplyDeleteDitto on the Snoop book too--I found it honest, inspiring and gut-wrenching. I don't think it glorified (hate that word--see other class blogs to see my opinion on it) anything--her life sucked. It was sad. She had support both on the risky end and the non-risky, so in a way she was split (Christina's blog eloquently describes this) between the two. She made bad decisions and it seems like she knows they were bad.
I can't imagine what it must be like for students to go through school in a place like the one in that Wire episode. Boy was that disturbing, and you really hit the nail on the head when you compared it to getting hit in the face. Exactly.
Great post.
Good job. You could have used the first paragraph as your Book Talk.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say you were absolutely right about the Wire and Grace... Also the writers said lots of the stories on the Wire actually happened in Baltimore. Which makes it even more scary.