True+Notebooks

Overall, I think True Notebooks is a very good book. I did find myself confused at points about who was who because sometimes they would be called by their first name, and sometimes they would be called by their last name. This wouldn't normally be a struggle but because there were a lot of characters coming and going and just in general I had a hard time determining who was who. I also wish I knew how the prisoners in the writing class got to be in prison, what did they do wrong? I really wanted to know why Benny Wong was in prison because he seems like a nice, smart, innocent kid, and he never talked about gangs or drugs.

I think an important character is Kevin Jackson. I think this because he is always in a pretty good mood, he is always trying to help people, and he respects everyone. I think the author made him have these traits to show that not everyone in a prison is a bad person they made a mistake, or they went through a rough time period, etc. I also like Kevin because not a lot of people are able to admit what they did wrong and apologize for it in front of a lot of people or in front of no one. Kevin was able to do that and it made me respect him a lot more.

During this book I was confused on how fast time was passing because it never gave any notice. Towards the end of the book, when Mark receives the letter from Kevin it says he has been in the state prison for a year when I thought he had just been moved there. I think the author should of added more about how long Mark had been teaching there, or other hints about how fast time is passing.

I not necessarily liked how the author chose to make Kevin guilty but I noticed how he did that, I think there is a reason for doing that. I think that the author made that decision to bring us back into reality and show that there is not a happy ending in every story. Even though Kevin was a good guy who I think should of gotten out of jail, he was given a harsh consequence. I think that was to remind us that Kevin's life is not that different from other peoples in prison, to show that things like that happen everyday.

Caroline P.

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I think that __True Notebooks__ was overall a fantastic book that made me think about life from a different perspective. While reading over other reviews, I came across one written by Anna M. She begins her review by saying that there are no bad people. I disagree with her statement. In this world, there are very bad people with very bad intentions. There are people who kill without reason, and whose ideas and actions are unexplainable. However, I do believe that none of the teenagers that I have just read about were bad people. Although they had done bad things, they all had reasons for their actions, and many of them had been scarred from not having parents, having alcoholic parents, having abusive parents, etc. When given the choice, every single one of the boys in that writing class created something beautiful. They all had a voice and opinion, but were never given the chance to express it. =====

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My favorite character is Kevin Jackson. When I compare my life to his, I can think of zero similarities. He grew up without a mom and a dad, and the only people he had to turn back to as friends were his gang. However, those people, the ones whom he relied upon the most, were the ones who ended up getting him in trouble. Yet, when reading about the crime he committed, I found that I did not like him any less. I agree that what he did was beyond terrible, but so did he. That is what I respect most about him. While in __Central Juvenile Hall__ for two years, he was able to completely turn his life around. From the beginning, he was able to reflect upon his crimes. =====

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Thinking over and over about a terrible action you committed, and then turning yourself around and becoming a completely new person is something difficult to do. While everyone hopes that they can get rid of their bad habits and change who they are, it’s common that they don’t actually follow through. However, Kevin Jackson was able to do this, and for that, I admire him. =====

-Hannah S.

Reading Bowl Wikispace Assignment True Notebooks Mark Salzman

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This book had a really big effect on me. I had never looked into the cruelty of our prison system. I believe it is incredibly in humane to put a 17 year old in prison until he is an old man. It truly is disgusting. My favorite character was Nathaniel, because he was so spirited even though he was obviously struggling. i could tell he was hiding some thing through all his rhymes and high spirit. He did kind of confuse me, though because he talked sometimes about becoming a new person and other times about going back to his gang once he got out. ===== Some times in the book I was confused as to what was going on. There were times i lost the image completely and just heard the voices. There weren't very many descriptions, and I found it hard to picture the characters individually, besides the ones with really distinctive details. Over all though, I could not put this book down and I really think what mark does is incredible. He is changing lives each week and I admire him. At the beginning, he was a little bit weak and afraid but he grew to love and care for what he did. This book was really powerful, and I think it is really important. The character developement worked really well when even though most of the boys changed to better people, there were still incarcerated for horribly long times. There are no second chances once you are brought into the system. It really made me surprised when i truly realized: every one of the boys I love as characters have committed horrible crimes. --Lucy S

When I was little, I had a babysitter who used to teach yoga in a jail. I was never able to understand why she did until I read this book. Why would she ever want to do anything with bad people? However, now I know the truth: there are no such things as bad people. These are all good kids who made bad decisions in their lives. The first thing that surprised me in this book was when Sister Janet was telling Mark about the boys in his class, she said that Jimmy Wu used to be an A student before he joined a gang. It had never occurred to me before that criminals could be smart. How could you be smart and choose to murder someone? One thing that annoyed me about the boys in the writing class was how mean they were to the girls. I thought their treatment towards them would improve after the retreat, but it didn’t really improve all that much. My favorite character in this book is Kevin. He was always such a nice kid. Even though he was allowed to, he never cursed in Mark’s class. He never made rude comments about the girls. He never made fun of Benny Wong either. He was Mr. Sills’ messenger and he and Mr. Sills were even friends. He never forgot to ask Mark if he wanted soda or chips and salsa. Another thing that surprised me was that Victor used to ride horses. I always thought of horseback riders as very gentle and sensitive people, not the kind of people who would be in jail for committing a crime. Another thing that surprised me was that Victor had never thought of training horses and teaching people how to ride as a potential job. Over all, reading __True Notebooks__ was an eye-opening experience for me. Anna N.

True Notebooks True Notebooks made me gush with tears, and laugh, a lot. There's an author who I really admire and his name is Walter Dean Myers. He wrote a story called Shooter, which was about three teens involved in a school shooting, and is formatted in case files, tape recordings, interviews, newspaper articles, and journal entries. When I saw this book, True Notebooks, I knew I had to read it, because Shooter is a favorite of mine, will always be a favorite of mine, and I felt like this book would be a sort of "reincarnation" of that one, so I was excited. When I first picked up Shooter, I didn't know what to expect. I saw a bullet hole with black wisps of curled paper on the cover of the book, with SHOOTER in big red letters and I'm pretty sure the only thing I thought was "This'll probably be a good read", nothing specific, just a sort of "seems alright" kind of thing. Except after I read that book, for weeks, I think, it felt like I was in a daze. The main character is a guy named Leonard and through his diary we see his relationship with his father, and this part stood out the most to me. This is how Shooter and True Notebooks connect. You see his father is abusive, in a way. He doesn't have a lot of care for Leonard, and he degrades him, constantly. He goes to a shooting range with his buddies (the father does, and he goes here a lot. Another thing, he has introduced his son to guns. Leonard always talks about them, he's got a sort of infatuation). One day, Leonard comes to his father's work, and he sees his father's boss really chewing out his dad. He's surprised, and hurt, and angry because his dad did nothing to defend himself. He let the man walk all over him, is how Leonard feels. I feel like that was an important mindset to be with in True Notebooks. When I was reading, it felt like I always had to be mellow, that I couldn't get used to things, because there were always surprises. People weren't what they seemed, flaws turned out to be real issues, and people got sent away, literally, and mentally. This character came later in the book, but Benny Wong was my one of two favorite characters. You see that Benny is told off a lot, and he's put down, and treated bad. But he's got this mindset, like he can't be surprised. He's very real, and honest, and he knows a lot of the outcomes that'll happen to the people in the detention facility. The other guys in the class say he's a "buster" but he's a dreamer, I think. What went wrong in Shooter was that when Leonard was treated bad, and beat up he took drugs, a lot of them, and he couldn't let things go, he was incapable of that after a while. So throughout the book, he's driving himself insane. There's one part where he takes his girlfriend, Carla, and his best, best friend Cameron to go shooting with him. He sets up targets, and it's described from an interview from Cameron (these scenes are set in the past tense) that the bags were white, I think, and they definitely HELD something. So they shoot the targets. And afterwards when Cameron and Carla and Leonard go to take them down, you find out that there were turtles in the bags, in the targets, so at that point Len was trying to get them to see HIM, what he had become, but they didn't. Basically, at the end of the story from Len's journal and Cameron and Carla's recollection of the morning the shooting takes place, you find out that Len was the one who started the shooting and then you find out that he killed himself. He had written the words "Stop The Violence" in his blood. This was powerful because it felt like in that moment Len had finally made himself free from his "demons" as he called them, those of which he described as rats in his brain. The thing that I'm still reeling from about True Notebooks was how "locked up" they really were. Maybe I just can't get over this, but again, there was this underlayer of oppression. The story, to me, was screaming FREEDOM, the whole time, and though it was presented in different forms (freedom to love, to know what love is, to have the chance to be somebody, to have the chance to become someone they want to be, to find who they are, to learn from mistakes, to let go, to not care, to be able to express what they couldn't, or wasn't able to before they were convicted. The freedom to start over, the freedom to feel free, at peace, capable, content), from different people, from different levels of need, this was the one thing that a lot of them hadn't experienced to its full extent. This story left me wondering, and wanting for something but I couldn't place what it was until the end when Kevin named Mark his "North Star". What I want is to be able to remember this book for my lifetime. And I wonder if I will. The ending was beautiful to me, because it felt like it wasn't just Kevin who is coming full circle and leading himself to a positive dream, but it felt like everyone in the story had been set on a path where they're only led uphill. Like "Remember The Name" by Fort Minor, there's this part that says: Forget Mike - Nobody really knows how or why he works so hard, It seems like he's never got time Because he writes every note and he writes every line And I've seen him at work when that light goes on in his mind. And that's how I feel Kevin, Victor, Dale, all of them are like now. Even when Mark mentions Sal and how his writing is now seeming a little hopeless instead of searching, it's the class, the writing, the expressing, that leads them back to that path of accomplishing-what-means-the-most. They'll work hard, and work through, and they'll find happiness. I loved this story, because it shows when freedom is hidden, and when it is found, and it tells you WHY, freedom will always come back. Because that's just how life is.

Gabrielle W.

I liked this book quite a bit. At first I thought I wouldn't and that it would be all violence and things like that, which a bit of it was, but since they were in writing class most of the time, it wasn't that bad. It was hard to remind myself that these were real people, and that prisoners really are like this, and that it wasn't made up. I guess I always think of prisoners as violent and without feeling, s this was a real contrast. I really started to like them. One point in the story kind of made me see both sides though. When they are talking about how sometimes killing people is just defense, Mark is thinking about how victims are just defending themselves by putting the guys in jail. Up until then, I had been feeling sorry for them, because they thought of themselves as victims, and it was shown like that. Then later, I realized what awful things they had done. I guess the lesson there is that you should know both sides of a story before you judge, and this book showed the other side. At points the book was really sad, I thought, especially how some of the most prominent boys are taken away or get sentenced for good. But at least there is some good, like how Benny Wong got out, and how Duc got his writing published. I was so happy at that part, because I had felt bad for him before, but he actually did something good, even with his poor language skills. I feel like I got to know the characters in the first class the best. It was so sad that by the end, there were no more of the original kids, I don't think. The writing was much better than what I had expected. Of course, a lot of it was about violence, but the boys did well when Mark gave them a specific topic. it was interesting to see how the different boys wrote, some writing in big blocks, and other just writing little things that came to mind throughout the class. I also liked Mr. Sills, because even though he acted all big and tough, he was really nice underneath. Even though I didn't expect to, I really liked this book. Clare U.

TRUE NOTEBOOKS by Mark Salzman

//I liked the book True Notebooks because it was interesting to see what it was like inside a prison, and it was a reminder that the kids in there are just like us. They can write just as well as us. I thought the most important quote of the book was on page 124: "I glanced at the audience and saw a roomful of boys with tears running down their faces. The rustling...was the sound of sniffling and nose wiping-music to any musicians ears." I think this quote is important for two reasons. One is that it shows that these boys are humans, too, even though people might not think they are. They have emotion and they love people like anyone else. The second reason is that it show//s //that they aren't the kind of people you would think they would be. Mark even doubts that they'll be bored with his music after the act before, but they like it anyway.//

//I think one of the most important characters is Francisco. He helped the class along, and without him they would not get anything done. He helps add character to the class and make sure everyone shares. I think Nathaniel was also a big part in the class because he made the class fun and helped everyone come up with ideas. Also Mr. Jenkins helps in the book a whole// lot. //For example, while the whole prison is on Lockdown, he is able to get out two people to come and write. He wants the kids to have a good education and so he helps the writing class out as much as he can. Without him they wouldn't have had a lot of the classes they did, and therefore the writing class might have not taken off as well as it did.//

//What I liked a lot about the book was that he showed a lot of the writing, and that helped me understand the boys a lot better. I also think the letters from Kevin were a good addition, for it showed that his boys actually care about him outside of writing. One thing I thought was sad was that his class changed almost completely and everyone else was forgotten. A lot of people got put in other prisons, while only two of the original people stayed. I thought the original people were nicer to listen to and they kept me intrigued.// -Nick P.

I really liked the book __True Notebooks__ by Mark Salzman. I was interested in seeing what the boys were like when they were in prison, and how they were treated, and how they reacted to being treated like they were. I was surprised by the quality of their writing. I didn’t think that they were going to have much good writing, but they did, and I thought that it was really cool that Mr. Salzman included some of the kids writing. I was sad that the boys felt like and had to be two different people, the tough guys and the sensitive writers. Towards the end, I was sad that some of the boys were making fun of Benny and others who were "nerds" or just not tough enough for prison. Some characters that I thought were really important were Mr. Jenkins because he really seemed to care about the boys and the education that they got. He showed his love by helping Mark get his class started going and also keeping it going. He helped Mark choose people to have in his class that would really take something out of it. Another person who I thought was important was Kevin because he was really trying to be a good person and he wanted to do things that were good. For example, he joined the class, he was a messenger, who does a lot of things that people had to trust him for, and they did trust him to do it right, and he wanted to be a cook. Mark seemed to really want to help him because he was always talking about him, he was the only trial that Mark talks about in the book and his poem was the last page of the book. The last character that I think is one of the most important was Sister Janet. She practically dedicated her life to getting the people in kids in prison to feel like they were loved for who they were, and that involved writing. I don’t think that there was one specific most important line in the story. I think that everything that the boys said was very important to the story because it showed that the boys were actually people, and not just criminals. My interpretation of a message that could have been the message was that the people in prison aren’t all bad, and they are a lot like us, they just made one really bad mistake that they probably regret. -Claire Tincher At first I didn't think I was going to really like the book but after a little while, it started to become more interesting. Like Nick, I liked reading about what it was like in the Detention Hall. Before I read this book, I had stereotyped everyone in it to be mean and the only things they would write about would be killing people and guns. Yes, there was quite a bit of that but not nearly as much as there was thoughtful writing. I couldn't believe some of the things that they wrote. It really made me think about what it would be like to be locked up in there everyday and waiting to see if I would be stuck in prison for the rest of my life. I was proud of Mark in a way. It seems like it would be hard to go and teach these kids who have done something bad. I think the even harder part would be to loose them though. Throughout the book, some of the students get sentenced and leave. I would find it difficult to let go of them but I would know that I helped him.

As for characters, there were a few different kind. There were very few kids like Benny Wong. He seemed quite to me and I think that if he could have a do-over, he wouldn't have committed a crime. Then there was the most common character, it was a guy who tried to seem tough on the outside but when you gave him a piece of paper and a pencil, he would write his emotions. People like Fernando, because he would crack jokes about murder but then when he rode the horse around, he had so much love. Not only that, but he wrote about very emotional topics. Lastly, there was one of those people who is one of a kind, Nathaniel. He was cracking jokes, boosting his own ego, disrespecting class, and so on. The only thing that made Mark like him is that he had different and fresh ideas. He was very talented, the only problem was that he knew it and made sure other people did too. Then, there were the characters that weren't in trouble with the law like Mark and Sister Janet. Those two helped the kids the most. Like it mentioned in the book, it was hard to say no to Sister Janet so she can really influence what happens to the boys. As for Mark, he did a really hard, but good thing for them.

Finally, I agree with Claire on the quotes. I looked through the book and I couldn't find just one part that I felt really showed to boys and their personalities. It's like I said before, they can be thoughtful like on Marks birthday but they can be tough like when they murdered people. I suppose murdering people is much more than being tough but it makes sense.

-Kira Farley

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--> The book __True Notebooks __ was a very idea altering piece for me. The biggest impact it had was completely flipping many of the views I had on people who commit crimes. As many of the others, I went from believing criminals of all ages are awful people I wanted to keep as far away from me as possible to understanding, on some level, what these kids feel like and what they have to go through. I began to understand that this one mistake that is relatively small is ruining their young lives before they even really start. Instead of feeling any hate or discomfort while reading about these kids, I began to feel their situation was very unfair (especially being tried as adults) and I began to understands to understand why they might of committed these crime based on how horrible their lives were, not just seeing them as gangsters who kill for no reason. Another reason I was deeply affected by this book is because Mark was so honest while writing it, this makes for a much better, more intriguing piece.

To continue on the subject of Mark; this is really an amazing man. I completely admire what he did and is maybe still doing. Helping the people who really need it the most is often something hard to do, but Mark did it almost without question. It was clear throughout the book how important this class was to those participating it, the impact it had on there emotional self. Mark managed to write about his incredably good deed without making himself seem saintly, like a hero. This just shows what a exceptional man Mr. Salzman is. Another character I strongly liked and somewhat related to was Francisco Javier. To me he was like the highlight of the writing class. At the beginning of the book everyone thought was going to make a lot of trouble, but instead, he somehow finds himself in the class and becomes, I’d say, the most dedicated. This is what I love the most, how not only did he find emotions in it like all the other kids, but he connected with it, like I sometimes feel I do. This boy went from being the so-called trouble maker to my favorite character.

Sister Janet, in the reading, seemed to be included almost more for symbolic purposes than to be a character. She represents the hope that all the boys needed to get through the detention center. She was always persistent setting an example for the boys while trying to help them at the same time. Also, I think, she represented what Mark wished he was like, his goal in life almost. One last symbol are the girls that the boys often see walking by their windows. The girls remind them, almost teasingly, about how good life is in “the outs”. They represent the boys’ wants and in a way //are// the boys’ desires.

Truly a beautiful piece of non-fiction, True Notebooks.

-Gabe Eisen

I really liked the book __True Notebooks__ because it explored the lives and aspects of people who the public never gets to here from. It made me think differently than I did before about the criminal system. Before I read this book I thought that it was the person’s entire fault if they were in prison and that they should get no slack when the punishments are chosen. When I read the experience of Kevin and how his defense only lasted about thirty minutes and they didn’t even let him give a statement. This made me really upset. When I was halfway through the book, I flipped to the back and read the authors note and I was very surprised when I learned this story is non-fiction. I really admire Mark for spending so much of his time helping people who society looks at as scum. I thought it was very upsetting that by the end of the book that none of the original people from the writing class were left. Mark was my favorite character in the book except for // Nathaniel. I really liked Nathaniel because he was so high spirited and instead of picturing himself as a criminal. He pictured himself as a political prisoner, he is very creative. I think it was also really great of him to help Mark not get “played” by the other prisoners. // // Overall I Think this book was very good. One line I found when I flipped through it that really stood out to me is that “jail is a place that separates people who got caught breaking the laws from people that have not gotten caught breaking the laws.” I think this line is very symbolic because it shows how people inside jail think. It shows how they think that jail is an unfair place that teaches a person nothing. I thought it was very interesting how some of the kids said that if they got out they would go right back to gang banging. This was a very well written book. //

// -Evan Gold //

True notebooks

True Notebooks was a fantastic book. Which really surprised me because I was reluctant to read it because I had developed my own thoughts about people in prison. I used to think that they were just bad people. This book showed the other side of things one which is rarely ever seen. It showed that these prisoners are actually people, and many of them have very much changed since they go locked up. The author also did a excellent job of being honest and putting lots of thoughts and feelings into the book to make interesting and actually making you care about the characters in the book. The reason why I think it is honest is that even though they show the other side of the argument they seem to show the “Gangbanging” side as well. The thoughts and felling’s also helped amplify the story from the prisoners, mostly the lives they had before they went to prison. My absolute favorite thing about this book is the explanation why they are in there. The news and the media in hole tells what they did and how their punishment is. But it does not tell the hole story. So it is like we are judging a dinner by how the drink tastes, not the truly important part of the meal. My favorite character was of course, Mark. In the first few parts of the book he was very honest of his feeling towards people in gangs, and how he just wanted to get rid of all of them. Then as he goes one he sees the depth in the prisoners and fells he has changed. MY favorite scene in the book is when Mark first goes to his friends class to see how they are writing and how to teach. I liked this part because it shows his first judgmental thoughts but then his admiration the topic.

-Porter

True Notebooks I fell in love with True Notebooks after the first 100 pages. I loved Mark's honesty about how he thought the boys would be like. As I reading the book I totally forgot that it was non-fiction and when I realized that my favorite are now spending their lives in jail I cried. I felt close to Francisco, Benny, Kevin and the rest of the crew through their writing and stories they shared. I enjoyed how real and honest they were about jail and terribly saddened that they believed they would be in jail for life and then being right. These kids were so young and had made honest mistakes and would spend the rest of their lives making up for it. My favorite character was Francisco. I loved his humor and his writing. I cried the hardest when he got his sentence. I finished reading this book weeks ago and I still think about those boys. I want to know where they are now, if they didn't kill themselves in jail, and if they're still writing. I see people in jail differently now. I don't see them as cold heartless killers but instead as misunderstood kids who don't have anyone and nobody tried to help them. This book sorta changed my outlook on life. I feel more understanding towards people in these situations and I want to help kids like that when I grow up one day. I didn't think this book would be anything special but now it's my favorite book in the world. I can't reread it though, it was just to sad. I wonder if other readers think about these boys as much as I do. I loved this book and would suggest it to anyone who's looking for a book to read. -Jada T.

Reading Bowl Assignment #4 Wikispace Assignment True Notebooks

I really enjoyed True Notebooks and liked it more than any other Reading Bowl book so far. One of the most important reasons why I thought it was so great was because of the characters' honesty. I was really impressed by the fact that the author was willing to share their prejudices that he had about kids in prison and that even though he was afraid and nervous at first, he still went through and started his writing class. Not only was his honesty really vital to the development of the book, but the kids themselves were even more incredible.

To be honest I have always thought of people in prison as being cold and heartless, so when I read this book and the different stories that the kids had written I really realized how not only are they just kids like you and me, but they are also afraid and are only in prison because they were raised in an environment where it was kill or be killed and they just wanted to feel like they were part of a family end that is why they killed people and joined gangs. I was really surprised by how the kids were so willing to talk about their feelings and say that they had been wrong and wish that they had made different choices in life because I normally think that if you show your emotions in prison people will think you are weak and they will jack your stuff and punk you, which is the type of thing the kids talked about at the beginning of the class and also the idea of having to always put in different masks while in prison was really powerful.

While the kids were talking about all of the bad choices they had made in their lives that led up to their being imprisoned, one of them mentioned how it was unfair of the politicians and jurors and cops and lawyers and judges and the rest of society to judge them and lock them away for the rest of their lives because they had never experienced what these kids had gone through and they weren't bad kids they just made some bad decisions because they were afraid for their lives and just wanted to protect themselves. After they had said this, Mark wanted to bring up the question to them about the idea that the rest of society was just locking them up to protect themselves and that how was this any different then what they were arguing about for why they shouldn't be persecuted, and I was just wondering what you all thought if this idea of whether it is fair or not when everyone is just trying to protect themselves and do whatever is best for them.

Overall I thought that this really was an amazing book and that it really did have a major impact on how I view the world. The most compelling part of this book but also the saddest part was the very end because even though Mark has given these kids a great experience and allowed them to express themselves they almost all still ended up being sentenced to life in prison and will never live the full lives they wished they could live. Also when one of the kids talked about how they really loved what Mark had done for them, but none of it mattered because as soon as they moved to county they would have to once again put on their masks and become what they had been when they were first arrested and that the gangs would be the only family they would ever have anymore. I really hope that you all enjoyed this book as much as me and that it will have as big an impact on you as it did on me.

Griffin McCauley

Reading Bowl Wikispace Assignment True Notebooks Mark Salzman

True notebooks was a very well written book. I thought that the characters were very well developed. By reading this book I could understand all of the characters emotions. Just like Mark I thought of the students in the class as individuals, not as a group of students together in a writing class. In the begging of the book I expected all of the characters to be murderers, and act like them. To my surprise, the characters were just like any other people. Although they had murdered, they didn't act like cold blood murderers in the class. Instead, they acted like civilized people. I had a stereotype about these kids in the jail. I think that Mark also had a stereotype, and some prejudice about the kids.

Something I thought really added to the book was that Mark was able to realize the stereotypes he had of the kids. He started the class with assumptions about the kids. I also thought that I knew exactly how the kids would act before even knowing the characters. Mark was able to understand that these kids were viewed as cold blooded criminals who deserved to be put in prison because they were "bad people". Other people would think that they would never be able to become "good people", or realize their mistakes. People didn't understand that these kids could change, and most of them had. They had a label saying that they were the same people they were when they had committed the crime. Before I read this book I thought of people in jail to be heartless. Now that I have been able to put myself in the kids shoes I have learned that these kids are the same as any other kids. The kids were never really given a chance. One of the kid said that when his dad died he was pressured to become the man of his house, and not show emotions. He started to do poorly in school, and get involved in gangs. Later he was arrested. He had been growing up in a environment that had offered little opportunity after his dad had died.

Another thing that shocked me was how young the kids were. Some of them were only fifteen. Probably the saddest part of the book for me was when Mark went to Kevin Jackson's court case. I was appalled by how helpless Kevin was. It wasn't a surprise to him at all that he had been guilty. From reading the book Kevin was shown as a very kind, rule following boy. He was most of the teachers favorite. He was trusted to to unsupervised errands. I would have never thought that he had murdered somebody. At the court they said that he had murdered somebody. I wanted the judge to be able to now how much Kevin had changed. Though, they only saw how Kevin was a murderer, and not how he actually was. Over all I really enjoyed this book. I learned so much about life as a kid in jail and about how I had stereotyped them. --Alondra Romero