Snitch

December 3, 2007
Van Diepen (Street Pharm
) gives readers a close-up look at the explosive world of youth gangs in this mostly convincing novel. At narrator Julia DiVino's Brooklyn high school, “staying out harder than joining,” but she and her best friend made a pact in seventh grade never to get “jumped in” and they've kept it. Her resolve is tested when she falls for hot-looking Eric Valiente, the new guy from Detroit, who affects her like “a shot of caffeine to my bloodstream,” even though he joins the Crips. After she warns Eric of an imminent attack by a rival gang, Julia is labeled a snitch and gets badly beaten. Her friends are too frightened to associate with her, and Crip girls take revenge for Julia, leaving her with a “Crip debt to be paid.” The die is cast for a terrible choice. The author's experience working in a tough Brooklyn high school comes through in her knowledge of the inner workings of gangs, even though Julia's voice wavers between earnestness and authenticity (“You see, she was mad horny”). A gripping story that is never preachy and presents powerful, all-too-real conflicts. Ages 14-up.

January 1, 2008
The deal was no gangs. Ever since seventh grade, Julia and her friends have determined not to allow the gang-permeated culture of Sheepshead Bay High School to ruin their futures. But that resolve wavers after Julia falls in love with newcomer Eric, a Crip, and joins the gang herself. She feels protected by the Crips, but drugs, sex, and violence are rampant, and when Eric begins to lie to her, Julias carefully planned future dims. The author of Street Pharm (2006) exposes another teenage counterculture, realistically depicting the world of the gangbanger and the insidious nature of lifelong protection, with no escape. Julia and Eric are poignant, authentic characters in a continuously looping, real-life tragedy. Although their stories offer hope, their friends are not so lucky. Snitch presents an important object lesson for todays teens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)