Bang!

October 24, 2005
In a contemporary, hard-hitting survival tale set in a neighborhood where people get shot "for no real reason," Flake (The Skin I'm In
) follows an African-American boy's harrowing initiation into manhood. Two years after Mann's seven-year-old brother is killed in a drive-by shooting, the boys' father decides to teach 13-year-old Mann, who narrates, the same lesson received by boys in African tribes. He drives Mann and his best friend, Kee-lee, into the woods and leaves them there to fend for themselves. Wild animals prove to be less of a threat than the people the boys encounter, and once they do return to the city, Mann's father turns them out again to find out what direction they want to take in life ("You wanna be a pimp—well, there's a road that'll lead you there. Wanna be a thief, sell crack and live high and die hard—well, that road's waiting for you too," says Mann's father). The method used to induct Mann into a violent world will spark as much controversy among readers as it does among characters in the book, but in the end, Mann (who fares better than his friend Kee-lee) does learn some important lessons that go beyond survival. There is a gradual yet notable change in his morality as he searches his soul to find what kind of man he wants to be. Ages 12-up.

October 1, 2005
Gr 8 Up -Even though random shootings have become increasingly common in his neighborhood, Mann is horrified when his little brother is gunned down while playing on his own front porch. Two years later, the 13-year-old and his parents are still struggling with their grief. His father believes that if he had been less loving and protective, Jason might have been tougher and capable of avoiding the shot. Mann and his friend Kee-lee keep track of the shooting deaths around them, certain that their own time may come and make them nothing more than numbers on their list. Influenced by ancient African coming-of-age rituals in which young boys are sent into the wilderness to attempt to survive, Mann's father takes him and Kee-lee camping and abandons them far from home. For two urban teens with little food or money, this is a dangerous, frightening experience that leads to crime and violence. After the boys make their treacherous way back home, Mann's father turns him out to live on the streets, determined he will not lose another son because he is too -soft. - This disturbing, thought-provoking novel will leave readers with plenty of food for thought and should fuel lively discussions." -Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2005
Gr. 9-12. Following the death of his six-year-old son in a ghetto shooting, Mann's father made every effort to toughen up his surviving son: "If he's gonna be a man, he's gonna have to learn to chew nails and hold a gun in his hand." Approximating an African coming-of-age ritual, he abandons Mann and his friend Kee-Lee at a distant campsite. The experiment ends in tragedy when Kee-Lee falls victim to more senseless violence. Will Mann respond by spiralling into a street thug's nihilistic existence, or will he become someone who "takes trouble and makes something good out of it"? Flake's plot is relentlessly and purposefully grim as well as somewhat jumbled, with disparate story strands that include Mann's developing talents as an artist and his efforts to heal sick, abandoned horses at a city stable. But the vivid, raw voices that earned Flake a Coretta Scott King Award for " The Skin I'm In" (1998) and two Coretta Scott King Honors are in abundant evidence--and the complicated relationship between Mann and his father represents a welcome investigation of African American manhood, a theme that cries out for broader YA treatment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)