N Books

Review by Sherry North, Author, Because You Are My Baby

Bold artwork and simple text combine to offer an outstanding introduction to trains for young children. There are only a few words on each page, making it a quick read-aloud that will hold the attention of even very young toddlers. The text describes the different types of cars in a freight train, then follows the train through tunnels, past cities, in daylight and darkness. Satisfying and highly recommended.

My 3 yr old grandson loves this book. The "story" is so simple but allows the reader many way of expanding the story through sound effects, color recognition, parts of the locomotive, parts of the track bed, speeding train sounds, it's going,... going,... gone.

Freight Train/Tren de cargaSimple words with simple images. You can hear the "click clack" of the train coming down the track, the chugging sound of the steam engine, and the sound of the horn as it approaches and then moves away. My daughter loved this book before she could even say the words.

My oldest son loved this book. It was his favorite when he was little. It builds on vocabulary; you can count the cars, name the colors, and look at different scenarios. I learned a lot about trains by reading this book to them. I am raising my children bilingual and when I found it in English and Spanish I knew I had to get it for them. It also helped me remember the words in Spanish, which I had forgotten. I must have for any child that likes trains. Donald Crews again has delighted us with a masterpiece.

My 2 year old son is obsessed with trains - he loves this book. It is very short and the pictures are well drawn. This books shows the difference between a hopper car and a box car, etc so now when we see a real train he can tell me what kind of cars they are.

The story is touching and is suitable for grandmas as for children. The illustrations are marvelous by a famous artist.

I am a Christian who knows Christ as her savior and strives to follow biblical principals. I just have to say that I don't recommend this book to anyone. I found the book to be very confusing for children around my daughter's age (3). I agree with the other reviewers that the "He/She" references just don't make any sense to children and could be wrong altogether. I have to pose the question, Is the author trying to convey that God is whoever we want " him/her" to be? Because if that's the case, that simply isn't true. Perhaps, the author is trying to explain God's omnipotence, omnipresence, etc. That is true. He is all-knowing and everywhere all at the same time. I just don't think this book is the proper avenue to teach that to a child. They will learn that better through their interaction with the world around them. (i.e. taking them outside, feeling the wind, explaining that God is like the wind in that you can't see Him, but there is evidence all around us that He is there just like the way you see the trees move when the wind blows). Bible stories and how you apply them to a child's life will teach them all about who God is and the life lessons He wants us to learn. Not this book.
From what I could find about the author on his own website, he is referred to as one connected with nature. Yet while he acknowledges God in his books, I haven't seen anything that refers to any kind of biblical background in his own personal life. To me that is a red flag. If someone is going to explain God to my daughter, I want that person to know the Lord and have a close personal walk with Him. If this author does, I would like to know more about that concerning him.

this was a nice book on diversity. i think one of the things people get the most worked up over is spirituality. it's one of those things that can touch a person more deep than anything else, and everyone's perspective will differ, even if only minutely. wars have been started over the issue, and all because we're too pig headed and focused on our own validity. this book starts off with animals and rocks and trees each saying that what they think god is is indeed the true god, and that god seems to resemble the speaker. then the old turtle stops them and tell them of the coming of a new group, humans, and how they are supposed to be a message from god the the earth and a prayer from the earth to god. then people come and after while start to do not so nice things and nature says to stop. then the beings that said god was like themselves at the beginning of the book said they saw god in that which was opposite themselves. i guess the moral being have an open mind about that which is different from yourself, because it really isn't so alien to what you believe.

This book begins with the beings of nature having an argument as to who God is, an age old question. The old turtle speaks up and tells everyone to stop! And tells of a new being that will come and be in the likeness of god out of his love, humans. Then the humans start to argue and fight and destroy the earth. Till again the turtle said stop, and the people began to listen and realize the beauty they were destroying, the earth. The story is not specifically religious but more of a lesson of not to destoy what we have been blessed with. The illustrations are chinese watercolors and they are imaculate! Definately a must to add to your collection.

I am so torn here. I love this book - my mother would love this book. So what's the problem? It's a feel good book that seems like it would better reach a new parent, a teen, or someone going through hard times better than a child.

The story clearly has a moral tale to convey. I tend to like that, and I love the message on diversity. Unfortunately, as far as plot/story, it falls short. It fails to go beyond just a morality lesson. And for this, it failed to captivate either of my children.

If the target audience are children: For lessons on friendship with story intact, try pumpkin soup. For a story about diversity and acceptance, try The Woman Who Outshone the Sun. For general moral tales - Zen Shorts.

...I really enjoyed the book. My 18 year old daughter brought the book home last year, and she can't get enough of it or the series of books under the Daughter's of the Moon series.

I wouldn't personally reccommend the book for the younger teen audience, as it deals with some more grown up situations than a 13 or 14 year old may really understand, and with the fantasy elements and the supernatural aspects of the book, a slightly older audience would probably be better able to read the books for what they are.

In all, the book has a great story, interesting characters, and seeing things from a point of view that is not what one would normally find in books of this nature really makes the book compelling.

I would recommend it for the young adult crowd.

This story is the best I, ve read in all the series.It shows Stanton's pointo of view.You get to know him a little better and understand all the problems he faces as a follower because of his love for Serena.Stantons a dream guy.He's cute,mysterious, and has really cool powers.
I think the author should write more books on him and stop writing Sons of the Dark!!
-TLATKD

This was the book that made me keep reading after I read the first in the series. I wanted to get to the book that I knew would be focused on Stanton and his point of view. It wasn't as fufilling as I had hoped, however, it was not as dissapointing as the book told from Serena's P.O.V. What is great about this book of this series as all of the background information we are getting, Stanton's past, that of some of his fellow followers and more of the technicalities of following the Atrox. The book also does a nice job of leaving you wondering what is going to happen next. It doesn't necessarily leave you with a burning desire to find out what happened next, but a mild curiousity that could lead to me reading it, or not.
And I still don't get the attraction between him and Serena. I almost want him to hook up with Cassandra, she seems more interesting in many ways.

I read this book along with the Secret Scroll this week-end. I love Stanton. I can't believe what he did to save Serena. I liked seeing into his life and knowing what he thinks. The book held me captive and I couldn't stop reading until I had finished it.

The Lost One by Lynne Ewing is one book of a fantastic series. The book tells about a 5 girls who become close friends by finding out that they are all special in one way or another. Catty can time travel, Vanessa can become invisible, Serena can read minds, Jimena can tell the future,
and Tianna can move things with her mind. These 5 girls make up the Daughters of the Moon. "Tu es dea, filia lunar. You are a goddess, a Daughter of the Moon"(Ewing 271). These girls come together to try to help Catty who has gone missing. If they dont find her they will all be destoyed forever. Will they ever get Catty back in time? Will the Atrox finally destroy The Daughters of the Moon? To find that out you'll have to read the
book. I absolutely love this book. It is the kind of book that always keeps you on your toes. When you start reading this book you will never want to put it down. The Author mixes mystery, danger and love into this book. I would recommend this book to people who love mystery and adventures because that's all what the book is, a great big adventure.

Yes, it's a book with easy words and big pictures of animals in costumes going to a birthday party. In that respect, it's a children's book. But the depth of the mystery and clues are beyond the reach of most 4-year-olds (and many adults, for that matter).

My own life is a good example. I got this book for Christmas forever ago and loved the pictures, but as I grew older I began to appreciate the intricacy of the clues, and as such still pick it up well into my twenties.

Yes, it's possible that your toddlers may get frustrated by the mystery being over their heads. But don't let them cheat and look up the answers (given in a special sealed section in the back, along with all the clues hidden in the illustrations); instead, let them figure it out - it serves as a great learning and perception tool.

I read this book on the recommendation of a friend. I say that I read it, but really this is more like a book you do. What do you do? You solve the mystery of the poetic story by searching the detailed illustrations for clues. Some clues are more obvious than others, but most clues take real sleuthing to discover. I had so much fun with it, and after about two days of study, I came up with the answer, but there was still so much that I had overlooked. Thankfully, the author reveals all to you in a sealed section at the back of the book. I encourage you to resist seeking the answers until you've tried your hardest to find as many clues as you can. Even if you can't figure out the who dunnit, you will be exited with every clue you find, and will likely hear yourself exclaim, "Ah-ha!". This book is marketed to children but it takes a sharp mind to solve the mystery and discover the clues, so it is really better suited for teens and adults, but even small children will enjoy the story and the amazing pictures. I would give this book as a gift to anyone who enjoys a good brain teaser. So get out your magnifying glass, a notepad and pencil, and have fun!

The story is about Horace the elephant who has decided to celebrate his eleventh birthday, with 10 of his friends in the eleventh month (November) on the eleventh day. After all have arrived the eleven characters participate in eleven games in anticipation of a birthday feast at the eleventh hour of the day. Thus the title of the book - The Eleventh Hour. The day is filled with musical activities, indoor/outdoor games, board games, cards, party games and more. The eleventh hour arrives disappointing the guests with the unexpected disappearance of their birthday feast. Apparently a theft perpetrated by one of the invited guests. Horace saves the day by serving healthy whole wheat sandwiches to all and the birthday cake remains because it had been stored away from the feast. With everyone enjoying the birthday cake, the story closes with a happy ending.

However, this is where one story ends and other mysteries begin. On each page of the book there are puzzles to be solved and clues to lead a more intrepid reader along the trail to the thief of the birthday feast.

I'm a freshman in college and I still love this book. My third grade class room had a set but we were NOT allowed to open the pages in the back! The entire class spent lots of time pouring over the sumptuous pictures and trying to spot each and every hidden...well, I won't give it away. I came across the book in a bookstore recently and bought it immediately because I had such fond memories. Do yourself or your kid a huge favor and buy it!

-- And it's a "kids book"!!!

I'm 26 now, but I remember the astonishment and awe I first felt borrowing this book from my 5th grade class's "library" when I was 10 years old. Back then, I gave up after 4 hours of not being able to figure anything at all out and had to look in the Sooper Sikret Section, but this time around, I got a few more of the clues on my own before having to look up the Section :P

A great book to sate the inquisitive mind of a bright child, honestly. Highly recommended!

I loved this book. It is so weird that Tigerclaw becomes leader of ShadowClan. I was wondering how long it would take Bluestar to realize that Tigerclaw was trying to be leader.

All of the Erin Hunter books are great! I just love them and have read them many times over. I am not a reader, I hate to read!!! But give me a Warrior series book and leave me alone for a few days. They are the best. Thanks Erin for opening up a new world for me.

A good book. Really though if you are new to the series get one first! And Into the Wild book one not Midnight. I had a friend that did that and she didn't get it at all! Besides that spioles it!

Pre-teen and early teen girls love the series. It has my 10 year olds attention. She is reading like never before.

like i said before, it's a pretty good book. the only reasons I'm marking it down is because of Cloudpaw and Bluestar. Cloudpaw constantly gets in trouble and that gets very annoying, especially when Fireheart doesn't punish him enough. And Bluestar's frustrating, thinking that everyone is a traitor and not coming out at all. She has also given up belief of StarClan. Overall, a pretty good book

this was entertaining, unbelieveable, and a real page turner...exactly what you want in a good book.

This memoir is not just Barbara's, but is the story of everyone who has grown up in an alcoholic family. I could empathise with her trials, fears, anger and perceptions, and would often find myself nodding subconsciously as I read along. I felt I knew her well. Thank you so much for courageously sharing your story.

I could not put this book down! I got so caught up in this memoir, I couldn't wait to finish it. Then, when it was done I wished I hadn't read it in 4 days! It is filled with gut wrenching stories, sometimes so incredible it seems they can't be real. The part that takes place at Christmas was especially moving to me.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

a heart-wrenching true memoir that is almost unbelievable to imagine. how children can cope with the harshest

abuse,emotionally and physically, with a mother standing by silently shows what resilience the human spirit can endure. looking forward to the sequel"fierce"

Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter is a powerful and poignant story of impoverished life as experienced by Barbara Moss.

Surrounded by poverty, alcoholism, abuse, malnutrition and facial deformities, Moss could easily have allowed herself to be trapped in that negative world. Instead, through determination and the kindness of a few strangers along the way, she rose above adversity and has been able to escape the clutches of childhood demons.

In 1996, Moss won the Gold Medal for Personal Essay in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Contest. Her winning essay became the first chapter of Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter. Her life, her determination, and her writing acheivements serve as an inspiration to the aspiring writer in me.

When I first read this book, I was working through the emotional impact of having undergone facial surgery to remove a malignant melanoma and recreate a nose. At the time of that first reading, I was more tuned into the parts of Moss's story which dealt so poignantly with the emotional effects of her deformed face and people's unkind reactions to that deformity. Her drive to find a way to resolve the situation was nothing less than admirable. Now that I am a few years beyond my surgery and have re-read her story, I find her desire to become Zeus's daughter (the goddess of beauty) pales in comparison to the beautiful person who writes this remarkable story.

With grace and insight, Moss takes us back in time to a place where life seemed to surely be waging war against her. In what she calls an effort to heal wounds and reclaim her family, she writes of both the challenges and the triumphs of childhood, adolesence and adulthood. Throughout the story, Moss interjects memories of a humorous nature - proving that even in the most desparate of situations, it is possible to find joy.

In what can only be described as a "wise beyond her years" approach, the ninth grade Moss wrote a list of eight things she wanted to do to improve herself. At the top of the list were "1. Remove moles on face, 2. Get braces on teeth, 3. Fix face." It is incredible that one so young would seize such determination and not let go until she had accomplished these seemingly insurmountable goals. Shortly after writing these goals, she began to act upon them. Her book reveals the ways she accomplished them. With remarkable insight, Moss writes about how each achieved goal created both negative and positive issues for her.

Moss's writing talent is evident in this deeply personal and moving story. Her gift to her readers is the lesson of redemption and grace in the midst of life's biggest hurdles.

by Lee Ambrose
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

All CD I purchased is in good condition also the music of soft voice even I do not understand the Language mostly Africa Rythem and Jazz of Paul Hadcastle.

This was the first honest-to-gosh personal finance book I have ever read, and I think I chose the best to start with.

It really helped me figure out some of the mysteries behind home buying, how to set up a budget that includes retirement *and* other things along the way, investing, how to deal with credit cards, etc.

I've never really bothered with thinking about this kind of stuff, because I felt like "since I *don't* have a lot of $$$, I don't really *need* to think about this"...more This was the first honest-to-gosh personal finance book I have ever read, and I think I chose the best to start with.

It really helped me figure out some of the mysteries behind home buying, how to set up a budget that includes retirement *and* other things along the way, investing, how to deal with credit cards, etc.

I've never really bothered with thinking about this kind of stuff, because I felt like "since I *don't* have a lot of $$$, I don't really *need* to think about this"--which is extremely stinkin' thinkin', but now I have a better handle on these ideas.

Another reviewer said something about "If you have other things to worry about..." and that's why this is such a good book. It packs a lot into a compact few pages, and gives you the confidence to continue researching this very important topic.

Not a book to pass up, friends!

If the turmoil in today's financial marketplace is stressing you out, you need this book! "On My Own Two Feet" is an easy-to-read, practical guidebook that shows you exactly what steps you'll want to take to weather the current economic storm. The authors do a great job making an overwhelming subject like finance seem manageable--and even fun. If you're worried about your financial future (or present!), "On My Own Two Feet" is your guide to taking control of your money--and your life.

Thank you Manisha and Sharon. I'm in my 30's, have traveled the world, purchased cars and homes on my own and overall done fairly well, yet I was missing so much knowledge on investing in my future I didn't know where to get the right advice for me. I read this book in two sittings, taking down notes on the type of investment plans that should work better for me and referring to my Quickbook file to see if I was saving the right amount (I wasn't). I love the tone of the book as you share financial knowledge in layman terms without condescending and making reassuring comments for those of us who might have made a couple mistakes along the way. I am going to recommend this to every young woman I know.
Thank you!

On My Own Two Feet is an inspiring guide for women of all ages to understand and get control of their finances. This book is a joy to read and after reading each section I was eager to implement Thakor and Kedar's ideas immediately for my own personal finances. I ordered Personal Finance for Dummies several years ago and it remains on my book shelf collecting dust. Not so with On My Own Two Feet; it is a guide that I consult and use often. Thakor and Kedar have included many useful tables, examples and summaries. When my younger sister called me the other day wanting to buy a new car; I consulted Thakor and Kedar's table "How much car can you comfortably afford?". It turned out she couldn't afford much, so she decided to keep her current car. I wish this guide had been available when I was fresh out of college; every young woman deserves to give herself the gift of financial freedom and On My Own Two Feet provides a great roadmap to get there.

If you're ten pages in to Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family and you have not laughed out loud, then just go ahead and put the book away. You probably haven't creased it too much, and you can probably successfully re-gift it. But chances are you will be chuckling, snickering and even snorting in delight all the way through Catherine Newman's hysterically honest-to-the-bone memoir of her pregnancy with her second child.

Newman relates the magical, green-tinged, anxious year before her second child's birth, as she shares her wildly contradictory feelings of motherhood ("a disorienting blur of love and crushing anxiety") and the guilt familiar to most parents that she surely is ruining her firstborn's life by having another baby. Newman's stream of consciousness writing style has a comfortable, easy effect on the reader. It's like talking to your lovingly kooky best-friend-since-childhood over tea and chocolate chip cookies (or, more likely, margaritas and, well, more margaritas). Newman is refreshingly real about the mixed bag of motherhood, warts, runny noses, sleepless nights and all. She writes, "I didn't understand that having a baby would feel like falling in love, but like falling in love on a bad acid trip. With an alarm clock - a pooping alarm clock."

Newman's humor appeals to any parent who has woken with a start in the middle of the night, engaged in an internal struggle over whether it's necessary to check if the baby is breathing, decided she's crazy and should go back to sleep, and then gotten up anyway to just take one quick peek at the baby. But Newman takes checking on the baby to a whole new level as her unbridled paranoia about aneurisms, Coxsackie viruses, and the barfing flu runs rampant in a strangely self-satisfying way that makes one murmur, "At least I'm not that crazy." Yes, Newman is a worrier of the first order. She worries about leaving her son to go to the movies with her husband, she worries about her pregnancy, she worries about lackluster libidos and toxoplasmosis and fleshy arms and deadly pathogens. In other words, she is a completely typical mother.

After all too many picture perfect images of mothers - from Mrs. Brady to anyone ever photographed for the magazine "Fit Pregnancy" - Newman's confessions are authentic, honest and reassuring. Throughout the seasons of her pregnancy, Newman holds up the mirror and shows us Everymother...and we just have to laugh.

Quill says: Buy two copies because the person sitting next to you will want to know what's so funny!

Buy this book. I adore Catherine Newman and her writing. She's witty, insightful, and very candid about parenting. I've read her on-line for years now, but only just bought this book for a beach read this summer. She is more than honest, admitting more about parenting and it's highs and lows than most are willing to. She's admittedly neurotic, but in a delightful, funny, relateable way. She deals with some heavy issues in this book, and even though she is a very different parent than me, I can't help thinking she'd be a great friend to have. Her "black humor" reminds me very much of myself. This book had me laughing out loud on several occasions, and shedding a few tears too. I can't sing her praises enough.

This author is a riot. I love her writing- it's fantastic. I'm agast at how much her kids are like mine (or at least the older one)- its a little eerie. Here I thought my kids were unique and there they go and show up in this book! I am going to slip a highlighted version of this in my kids baby book and save myself some writing.

One thing I think she touched on that I rarely see is how your feelings slighly change for your firstborn when the second comes along. Its hard to put your finger on but its so true that loving another child as you used to solely love them changes the dynamic a bit. Lets say youre suddenly diversified in your child love holdings. Plus with that second baby the first do appear suddenly giantic, loud and (sometimes) annoying. Poor kids. She is so right on.

Anyway, love this book, so glad I was on a memoir kick- she rocks.

This book is great for anyone who is pregnant or has young children. Catherine Newman is great. She has this amazing way of taking all those tedious tasks we perform as parents and making them hysterical. She also reminds us what a blessing our little ones really are. I borrowed this book from the library, but I just had to have my own copy. I recommend this book to all my pregnant family members and friends!

I am seriously not even half way through this book but it has made me laugh to the point of almost falling off the exercise machine! I had to give it FIVE stars right away!

Plain and simple it is a great truthful look at parenting one and than two kids. My husband told me I like this book so much because it is my voice written down - my thoughts, worries, parenting guffaws, etc... I love that I can laugh at her (which really means I am laughing at me) and I know that I am not alone in how I feel and do things at times. Personally, I need that and I love when I run across things that help me to feel that sense of there are others out there like me!

I think that if you take this parenting job TOO seriously it will put you in the mad house and the people that wrote not so great reviews are missing the point which is that parenting is funny and tragic and worrisome; scary and soul searching, a growing up of sorts. This is not a HOW TO be a parent to a 2nd child book - they have those out there, buy those not this one for that stuff. This is simply just a look into a world that many of us live but do not write down (or cannot write down in such a humorous, truthful way!)

Thanks for such an awesome book from a mommy due with her 2nd in August!

This book was really really good and well written. It was a little sad, but not too bad. I read this when I was maybe 9 and I'd say that's a good age to read it.

This book touched my heart. It is a story about the adventures of a stray dog from birth to old age told from the dog's viewpoint. It gets very sad at some points in the book, but the ending will warm your heart.
A must read for dog lovers of all ages.

This book was really good. It's a sad story but ends out really well. It shows how that we have to just keep going, and if we do that, we'll find joy at the end.

I read my grandson's book and had to have it for my own collection. Since then, I have been buying it for all my animal loving friends.

I love this book i read it in a week because it is so good you can ask my parents im attched to this book. If you are a dog lover you will love this book pick it up and read it give it a try~

Although this book was written in the 1960s, it is, still, very relevant today. This book was recommended to me back in 1983 or 1984 when I was in the military. I bought it with a number of other books. It took me twenty years to read it. I should have read it alot sooner; but, the rigors of life and the fact that a good many other books I bought kept pushing this one further back on the reading list. I grew up in the streets of NYC and saw his life being played out in a number of guys and gals I hung out with at that time. I didn't get caught up in the drug scene nor in the gangsta scene but, like the author, there was a lot going on outside the walls of the house to keep me outside nearly all day. Yeah this world was much newer for me then rather than now but I had to see what was going on within and without my neighborhood. As a parent looking at my kid, I know this world is new to them, which I can't shelter them from. As my kids look at me as their parent, they are constantly telling me to get out of their way. I want to see what is going out there. This only helps me to keep life real for them with a dose of non-reality here and there. Fortunately for Claude Brown, the street made him wise and through his book some of us can reminesce about those days and explain to others what urban life was like for us and how it made us what we are today. For others who have not experienced this urban lifestyle, take the book for what it is and re-evaluate your own experiences in hopes of passing on a reality check of your own life to your children.

I can't believe I didn't write a review for a book I read 10 years ago. This is one of my favorite books. It was this one book that drew me into reading books and becoming a book lover. One of the best books I ever read. Highly Recommended!!

This is an awesome book that I highly recommend to all young men trying to find their "way". It can be a little harsh, but it is about life in the inner city and a young man becoming a man.

I was able to find this book relatively easy, based on a few keywords. My boyfriend started reading it several years ago and was unable to complete it. The storyline stuck in his memory and I bought it as a surprise for him, because over the years he mentioned it occasionally. Thanks for making the lookup so easy!

Claude Brown's slightly fictionalized autobiography recounts his childhood and early adulthood throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Manchild in the Promised Land also documents the changing atmosphere of Harlem and the people it affected. Brown tells stories of himself as a hell-raiser, involved in theft and drug dealing, and spending time in juvenile detention centers like Wiltwyck and Warwick. He was able to establish a feared and respected name for himself both among the streetwalkers of Harlem and the inmates of the reform schools. Lacking formal education (resulting from years of playing hooky) and idolizing the criminal elements around him, he seemed to be heading down a short road of vice and danger.

Only after Brown moved to Greenwich Village shortly before turning twenty was he able to begin viewing Harlem with a more objective eye, and see the factors that led him down the downward spiral he had been traveling. One of the main reasons Brown believes he and his friends were wrought with such violence and recklessness is due to the mentality imported by their parents from the South. The thing that mattered most to them was fighting: for one's money, girl/family, and manhood (Brown 260). He feels that that rural mentality had been brought to a crowded city life that was not only incompatible with the setting, but also destructive. He laments, "it seems as though if I had stayed in Harlem all my life, I might have never known that there was anything else to life other than sex, religion, liquor, and violence" (Brown 281).

As a youth, Brown excelled in these very base attributes. It wasn't until the introduction of heroine, or "horse," as it was first introduced in the early 1950s, that he feels Harlem truly became unable to cope with their values. Instead of young men fighting for honor, they were killing and robbing for money to sustain their overwhelming addictions, introducing more guns into the neighborhood with desperate people wielding them. He witnessed his friends begin to fade away into scratching, nodding junkies. However, by this time Brown was able to leave and slowly break away from the crumbling Harlem he once knew, watching from afar many of the individuals he once hustled with fall victim to the crimes they themselves would perpetrate.

Many opted instead to stay in Harlem and live the street life. He attributes this to the attitudes of whites outside Harlem and the racism they encountered. To live a "clean" life usually meant to work for a white man who underpaid, referred to them in a racially derogatory manner, and made them perform the most labor intensive tasks. When it came to these prospects, most understandably chose the life of a self-employed drug dealer in Harlem over the self-effacing menial work elsewhere, despite the danger (Brown 287).

Where some people turned to drugs or religion to deal with these problems, Brown found his calling through more established and secular means. Education and music became outlets for him to express himself, gain a self-pride through non-criminal means, and eventually lead to a promising career as a lawyer and author.

One of the things that make this autobiography interesting is its use of language. Brown writes in a notable street dialect, however, the language itself evolves with the character. For instance, "cat" slowly comes into use around page 67 and is used throughout, though it receives less use towards the end. More notably, on page 109 the young Claude begins idolizing a street pimp named Johnny: "To Johnny, every chick was a b*tch. Even mothers were b*tches." And so on page 114 Brown writes "Jackie was a beautiful black b*tch." From then on women are regularly referred to as "b*tches" until the character matures enough to treat women with more respect, and Johnny's spell seems to have completely worn off by the time Brown falls in love with a fellow student. Likewise, the sentence structures become less erratic and grow in sophistication as the book goes on, using less slang chapter by chapter when he begins to change. This seems to be by design.

Claude Brown's personal accounts are no doubt fictionalized to some degree, for his characters go on exhaustive speeches several times, and he certainly didn't tape record them for every word. However, Brown's intentions are to present Harlem and its difficulties in approachable and creative ways. To allow readers (such as white-suburban-me) an inside look into the ways of urban life it invites an understanding and, hopefully, sympathy for the situations of the junkies, prostitutes, and drug dealers that we pass on the street. He shows them in a way that cannot be easily neglected, in intimate, personal relationships that reveal the influences and regrets that have placed them in those situations. These factors were not unique to the 1940s and 1950s. They existed before and do so today. Brown allows insight into the hardships while telling an encouraging tale of one who made it out. By personal drive and education, through art and self-expression (as this book is), he shows that the situation is not dire, but attitudes must change before the world will follow.