Customer Reviews

Babylon Boyz

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found Jess Mowry's book Babylon Boyz in my school library when I had to do a book report and first I thought oh yeah here is just another one of those boring "young adult books" by some old person who doesn't know anything about Black kids. Man, was this a surprise! This book is ON THA REAL! It's a story about three homeboys who live in West Oakland California. There is something different about each one of them that keeps them from being liked by most of the "G's" and "cool" kids in their school. Dante who is 13 and the main character was born to a mom who was on crack (she died). There is something wrong with his heart so he can't play sports or do a lot of physical things. The hospital could fix it but that would take a lot of money. Another boy named Wyatt is a great big fat kid who likes animals and going to the zoo. He has a big snake and a family of pet rats in his room which he shares with his little brother Cheo who is also very fat. Their mom runs a little cafe down by the docks. Dante's other homie is a muscular boy of 14. His name is Pook and his "problem" is that he's tha only gay boy in his school. He is a good student and wants to be a doctor but he doesn't have tha money to go to Medical School. I am not gay myself but reading about him helped me to understand gay people a lot better. All three have known each other since they were toothless. Dante's dad is an engineer on a tugboat and is gone a lot of tha time but there is a lot of love between him and his son. Tha story is set when tha boys find a big pack of coke that was thrown away by a drug dealer when he was getting chased by tha cops. His name is Air Touch. He's 18 and a typical wannabe gangstuh. Tha three boys also make friends with a mysterious homeless kid named Radgi and try to help him get off the street. At first tha boys think what they found is only crack and are ready to give it tha flush. But then they find out that it's pure coke and worth hella money. Then tha BIG question is do they try and sell it to get tha money each one needs to make their lives better when they know it will be cooked into crack and sold right back in their hood, or do they do tha right thing and flush it? This is a very interesting story because it's not like many other "young people books" where the plot and characters are very simple. There are many other interesting characters like Kelly who is a 14 year old Korean boy who's dad owns a liquor store, and Jinx who is a crack addict at 13 but who is trying to get clean. I really liked tha descriptions of tha characters in this book. If you have any imagination at all you should be able to see every one of them. This is a very deep book and there are so many other things goin-on plus tha main story that you never know what's going to happen on tha next page. There were many surprises. Some were good and others made me sad or angry. There were other things that made me laugh out loud. Tha ending is another surprise in a lot more ways then one. This is tha kind of book where you think you know what is going to happen but there is always something different instead. I stayed up all night to finish this book and I give it all five stars. I have mostly gone to movies in my life and I didn't like to read a lot before. But this book is like tha best of Boyz n' Tha Hood and Menace 2 Society with a bullet. None of tha characters in here are tha sterotypes you could expect them to be. You could even feel sorry for Air Touch for being a fool and getting caught in tha game. I went on to read tha other books by Jess Mowry and I recommend all of them.

Mark Taylor.

I am 13 years old and this was a very important book for me. It was making a discovery that I was not alone and that somebody cared enough to write about my own life and my own world. This is a very real book and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to know what inner city life is like for young people today. I found all of the scenes very real and all of the characters could have been people I know.

I gave this book 5 stars because Jess Mowry, author, did not forget who his reading audience was and he relied on using all of his knowledge of the ghetto. In the book a lot of slang was used and a lot of situations that only happen to kids in the ghetto. I really liked the book and I hope that Jess Mowry continues with this writing style, because I feel that he has the ability the attract teenagers who would normally not read books. I feel that Dante, Pook, and Wyatt are perfect for the tragedy of being stuck in the ghetto because they don't have the money or any connections to get them out.

Babylon Boyz, by Jess Mowry, is a thrilling novel about inner city life. It's based around the lives of three youg teens. Starting out with the words "Hey Homo," it captured my attention right away. Pook is the homosexual who is out of the closet. Wyatt is very overweight and Dante is a Rastifarian with a serious heart condition. These boys are best friends who want more than anything to get out of Babylon, their dangerous ghetto. Throughout the story they encounter many problems including: dealing drugs, fights, gang problems, tagging bathrooms and running from Air Touch. (A big gangster/bully)
A quote that particularly stuck in my mind was: "We all just little black ants in Babylon, waitin' to get stepped on and too stupid to see it." It's kind of true because these boys know that they will never be good enough with society looking down on them all the time.
I guess the whole reason I liked the book was, even though the characters may come off rough edged or as black trouble makers they are not. If other people took the time, they would find a bunch of passionate young men.
I would recommend this book to all mature audiances because the content may not be appropiate for children.

The spellbinding book Babylon Boyz, by Jess Mowry, is a thrilling, non-stop, nail bitter. You can't stop but think, what's going to happen next? The many twists and turns keep you falling off your seat. You feel as if you are the main character. It's that real. The characters have all kinds of different personalities, from a gay teenager to a crack dealing gang associate. All live hectic and violent street lives. The story revolves around the lives of five troubled teens, which live on the streets of Oakland. In a backdoor sub-division called Babylon. In Babylon this is where all the kids triumphs and falls occur. This book was amazing right from the get go. The first line entices you and brings you right into the story. The first chapter is exemplary, you really feel like your part it. The book is not for the faint of heart. It speaks of drugs, sex and gangs. It also uses slang to get the point across that this isn't any ordinary book. It really speaks from the heart of all inner cities. The slang is somewhat difficult but the use of it really makes you feel as if you're living on the violent inner-city streets. Without the use of the slang terms, the book wouldn't be as real. The book does have its difficulties. Sometimes the slang is too hard to understand if you're not fond with Ebonics. The story is sometimes random, and takes awhile before you can understand what's going on. The sentences vary from short to long; this may confuse the reader. One tip on reading this fantastic story is that always be ready for a surprise. This book isn't like anything I've read or seen before in my life. It was also the first time I've ever read a book written by Jess Mowry. He's spectacular; I've never read a story with such relentlessness and power. I would recommend this book to all people over the age of thirteen, because it has strong language and a lot of sexual content. If you're looking for change and want to read something new, pick Babylon Boyz, because you can't believe it until you read it. If I were to put this book on a scale from 1 to 10, I'd definitely give it a 10! It's that good. So next time your at a library and don't know what book you want to read, with out a doubt, pick up Babylon Boyz, you'll never put it down.

There are 3 black kids from Babylon. Pook is a Homosexual, Dante has a heart problem, and Wyatt is just...fat. The kids live in the ghetto, and go through a lot of hardships trying to find themselves, and deciding what's right and wrong. The people they meet aren't who you think they are when you first read it. This book is the best book I've read so far. You get so into the book, you forget everything else. Everything about inner-city life is in here. Poverty, Pre-marital intercourse,drugs, Teen-age pregnancies and the difficulities making it through a day of this. They could make a tv movie out of this...I'll be the first to watch it. The book is not for kids under 15. It has adult language and adult content. You will keep on wanting to read the book, it's almost addicting.

In the novel, Babylon Boyz, by Jess Mowry, three newly teen boys go through a serious of risky situations in the inner-city streets of Oakland, which they call Babylon. Pook, an out of the closet homosexual, Wyatt, an overweight boy and Dante, a boy with a heart condition. They meet many people along the way, such as Radgi, a homeless person that has a big surprise in the end, Air Touch, who threatens Dante's life with a gun and Jinx that "helps" Pook with his first homosexual encounter. They do such things as dealing cocaine, giving birth to a baby on a couch and almost getting arrested for tagging bathrooms, several times. Throughout the story these boys search for an answer for ways to get out of Babylon and in the end, they figure out, if they would stop searching so hard, that it's right in front of their face. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this book a nine. I really enjoyed this book. It was extremely interesting and enlightening. I was mainly intrigued with they boys everyday life. In mine, I have never come close to being shot in the head nor dealing drugs, so I like to read about a life that is different than mine, to expand my knowledge of different worlds. With this book, you are into it the second you read it. And while reading it you won't run into many problems, my only problem was figuring out who was who, but by the middle of the book, that was settled. Other difficulties may include trying to figure out what the slang means, but most of it is pretty straightforward. This book is for anyone who wants to know more about places other than were they live, if they don't already live in a "ghetto". It's really a book that almost anyone would like except little kids, it definitely has some mature subjects in it. A quote that I was really captivated by was when a man said to Dante, "Free will isn't free son. You pay for it every time you make a choice. And even if you choose not to choose, you've still made a choice." This means so much to me. Every single word in it relates to the whole meaning. The meaning is this, how when you make any choice or you decide to do something or even decide not to do something, you are always making choices whether they are good or bad, smart or stupid, right or wrong. And free will, something you are supposed to have no problem doing and you will always have some obstacle in the way and that's life.

Babylon boys is about three boys that grow up in Oakland in Babylon. The three boys names are Pook and gay strong black teen, Wyatt a fat gun packing black teen and Dante a weak reggae boy with heart problems that he cant offord to have fixed. They find a suitcase full of cocaine and they have to decide if they want to sell it or flush it. By selling it they could solve all their problems, but fan the flames of the communitys drug problems. I found the book very addicting and iteresting.

Babylon Boyz is a book that will capture you from the moment you read it and will pull you along for an edgy ride. It is a book about the life of teenagers living in Oakland full of poverty and gangs. It is set in the present and is one of the only books that really lets you know how the streets are and what problems and choices these teens have to deal with. I enjoyed reading the book because I am a teenager, and this book was really the only one that showed how teens could be smart and all aren't "bad". The language they use in the book grabs you from the moment you open the book. It is a language that most writers wouldn't attempt to use or couldn't pull it off because it is simply "street talk". Jess Mowery pulled this off in every way possible. This book expresses everything and is one of the only stories that discusses homosexuality among friends. This book would be challenging to read if the reader did not understand street talk among kids. Some ways to overcome this would be to simply get into the characters and realize that this is how they talk. Some of the hard topics that are introduced in the book are racism between whites and blacks. Jess Mowery takes a lot of dares in this book when he unleashes the racism. If you liked the movie "The Wood" then you will like this book. I warn you though, it is more realistic and graphic. After I had read the first couple of paragraphs of the book, I knew I would have to turn down some of the hottest books out there because I had to read this book first. The cover isn't striking, but all that needs to be done is open the book. I went through the book in about a week and usually when I read a book it takes about a month. There is certain type of person that will enjoy this book. Others and I have narrowed it down to male teens. If you are into graffiti, Reggae,and girls, I know for a fact you will be into this book. If you have a low-tolerance for violence, there are a couple of scenes that might make you feel queasy. The way the kids talk to each other creates strong humor in the book. "The boys waited chill. All wore just faded green gym shorts, and their black and brown bodies glowed warm in the sun but their faces went cold, showing nothing, and there was no nervous shuffle of Nikes and Cons that might have betrayed an emotion." This is just a brief passage from the book that reveals his beautiful use of language and how he uses "street talk" to create its own flourishing language.

I like this book a lot. The characters in it are real and the way they talk to each other is real too. These people are the same kind of brothers and sisters and teachers etc that you meet every day. Most of them are cool. Some of them are not and a few of them you don't like at all. I could believe that this story really happened. This is a book that makes you care about the people in it and what happens to them. I would read another book by this author.