Street Love
Your first love is totally wrong for you.\ Do you follow your heart?\ Or do you run away?\ Junice\ What am I doing? He’ll take one quick look And wish he was anywhere else but here I’m already ashamed of what I think He will think of me, of the life I lead\ Damien\ Yes, she is the fruit that will Sustain me and yes, she brings A rain that I know can chill But it is a rain so sweet and sings A song my soul insists That I follow, if I would exist As more than I have ever, ever been If my mother...
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Your first love is totally wrong for you. Do you follow your heart? Or do you run away? Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers delivers an evocative tale of star-crossed urban love, reminding us that before we can be true to someone else, we must first be true to ourselves.Publishers WeeklyMyers's (Monster) compellingly readable novel in verse unfolds through an array of characters, all linked by Damien Battle and Junice Ambers who both live in Harlem but come from very different worlds. Damien has been accepted to Brown University; Junice's mother has been sentenced to 25 years for possession and drug dealing. A pair of early rap poems set up a rivalry between Damien and Sledge (whose "crew... wore their colors"), and also Damien's fascination with a "beauty" who "walks darkly, as if her mind weighs down/ Her steps," later revealed to be Junice. Myers crafts some memorable moments here, as when Junice describes her mother ("She gave freely/ To those in need, or to those who, like/ Her, were broken, and needed a fix") or when Miss Ruby, Junice's grandmother, expresses grief for her convicted daughter in a blues poem ("Yeah, it's hard, baby/ It's hard right down to the bone/ I said Oh, it's hard baby/ It's hard right down to the very bone/ It's hard when you're a woman/ And you find yourself all alone") and the banter between Damien and a buddy. Yet some readers may wish for a deeper understanding of what draws Damien to Junice, and why he risks his own family's upheaval and his future at Brown for this new romance. Though both Damien and Junice come off as sympathetic characters, their attraction to each other remains a mystery. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Street Love\ \ By Walter Myers \ HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.\ Copyright © 2006 Walter Myers\ All right reserved.\ ISBN: 0060280794 \ \ \ Harlem\ Autumn in Harlem.\ Fume-choked leaves, already\ Yellowed, crack in the late September\ Breeze. Weeds, city tough, city brittle,\ Push defiantly along the concrete edges\ Of Malcolm X Boulevard. On 137th Street\ A toothless sidewalk vendor neatly stacks\ His dark knit caps beside the plastic cell\ Phone covers. Shadows indistinct in August heat\ Now deepen and grow long across\ The wide streets. Homeless men sniff the air and\ Know that somewhere the Hawk stirs.\ Harlem is not an easy place\ To grow old, and so the young\ Are everywhere,\ Pouring from the buses, city dancing\ To the rhythms of the street,\ City dancing to the frantic spin of life\ In the fast lane.\ \ \ Continues... \ \ \ \ Excerpted from Street Love by Walter Myers Copyright © 2006 by Walter Myers. Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. \ \
\ Publishers WeeklyMyers's (Monster) compellingly readable novel in verse unfolds through an array of characters, all linked by Damien Battle and Junice Ambers who both live in Harlem but come from very different worlds. Damien has been accepted to Brown University; Junice's mother has been sentenced to 25 years for possession and drug dealing. A pair of early rap poems set up a rivalry between Damien and Sledge (whose "crew... wore their colors"), and also Damien's fascination with a "beauty" who "walks darkly, as if her mind weighs down/ Her steps," later revealed to be Junice. Myers crafts some memorable moments here, as when Junice describes her mother ("She gave freely/ To those in need, or to those who, like/ Her, were broken, and needed a fix") or when Miss Ruby, Junice's grandmother, expresses grief for her convicted daughter in a blues poem ("Yeah, it's hard, baby/ It's hard right down to the bone/ I said Oh, it's hard baby/ It's hard right down to the very bone/ It's hard when you're a woman/ And you find yourself all alone") and the banter between Damien and a buddy. Yet some readers may wish for a deeper understanding of what draws Damien to Junice, and why he risks his own family's upheaval and his future at Brown for this new romance. Though both Damien and Junice come off as sympathetic characters, their attraction to each other remains a mystery. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ VOYA\ - Kathy Starks\ Myers ventures into the popular style of novels written in verse with his latest offering. With its dazzling, graffiti-esque cover and rap-like rhythms, the novel transforms the Romeo and Juliet story into an episode from the here and now. Damien is The Hero, "wearing his seventeen years easily around broad shoulders." A chance encounter with Junice, the troubled Beauty, sends his life in a new direction, much to the dismay of his ambitious mother, who expects great things of him, including advanced degrees and marriage to Roxanne. Junice has little energy to cultivate a new relationship with Damien, despite her attraction to his sweet smile and gentle nature. She must care for her younger sister and elderly grandmother when her mother is sent to prison for possession and distribution of drugs. The novel's format allows the reader to peer directly into the thoughts and feelings of the main characters, as in "Junice and Melissa" when Junice says, "I have to open my sister's mouth / And fill it with thoughts as hard / As stones so she can practice her lines / She needs to speak clearly / As she lies." The action is set using poem titles such as "Junice Ambers looking From the Window of the Bus" and "Damien Standing on the Platform, waiting for the Uptown 2." Myers's experiment with the verse form may surprise some, but hip-hop fans, readers of poetry, and hopeless romantics will respond to the emotional vibrancy of this powerful work.\ \ \ Children's Literature\ - Kathleen Isaacs\ College-bound 17-year-old Damien Battle is a Harlem success story in the making, but when he connects with streetwise Junice Ambers, he embraces a whole new world. In a varied series of carefully crafted poems, free verse, and rap in different voices, a master writer brings freshness to an old story. Will their love be strong enough to withstand the obstacles set up by their family and class differences as well as the decisions of the New York family court? Myers is wise enough to leave that question unanswered, focusing on the emotional dance as they slowly come together. The gritty city background is clear but not obtrusive; the contrast between Damien's dreams of success and his rival Sledge's embrace of hate is presented early on, as is the contrast between his successful family and the dissolution of Junice's when her mother is sentenced to 35 years in jail for drug-dealing. The form of the narrative allows readers to get inside the head of both participants and onlookers. For the adult reader, like Damien's parents, the tragic waste of his promise is akin to Romeo's death; for teens, the romance of this accessible love story will probably be the attraction.\ \
