Bang! (Paperback)

by Sharon Flake (Author) "THEY KILL PEOPLE where I live..." (more)
Key Phrases: Moo Moo, Aunt Mary, Maiden Lucy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up–Mann and his friend Kee-lee have grown up in the inner city where poverty and crime are rampant in this novel by Sharon G. Flake (Jump at the Sun, 2005). Two years ago, his seven-year-old brother was killed in a drive-by shooting. Mann's father wants to toughen up his son so that he can stop grieving, learn to control his temper, and stop smoking and skipping school. The father takes both teens out into the woods and leaves them to manage by themselves, reminiscent of African tribal coming-of-age rituals. After the boys make their way home, Mann's father wants to make sure that his son is still not too soft to survive on the city streets and throws him out of the house to manage on his own. Mann learns much about himself as he matures to adulthood. The story is written in the first person, and actor Dominic Hoffman becomes Mann, realistically reading the dialogue and depicting emotions ranging from anger to grief. He uses pauses effectively to heighten the suspense and maintain the mood. A short interview with the author concludes the recording. An excellent choice to initiate lively discussions.–Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Gr. 9-12. Following the death of his six-year-old son in a ghetto shooting, Mann's father made every effort to toughen up his surviving son: "If he's gonna be a man, he's gonna have to learn to chew nails and hold a gun in his hand." Approximating an African coming-of-age ritual, he abandons Mann and his friend Kee-Lee at a distant campsite. The experiment ends in tragedy when Kee-Lee falls victim to more senseless violence. Will Mann respond by spiralling into a street thug's nihilistic existence, or will he become someone who "takes trouble and makes something good out of it"? Flake's plot is relentlessly and purposefully grim as well as somewhat jumbled, with disparate story strands that include Mann's developing talents as an artist and his efforts to heal sick, abandoned horses at a city stable. But the vivid, raw voices that earned Flake a Coretta Scott King Award for The Skin I'm In (1998) and two Coretta Scott King Honors are in abundant evidence--and the complicated relationship between Mann and his father represents a welcome investigation of African American manhood, a theme that cries out for broader YA treatment. Jennifer Mattson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH (July 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078684955X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786849550
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #191,487 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bang, March 18, 2006

By	Terrence Clarke "Terrence" (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bang! (Hardcover)

Terrence Clarke
"Bang"

Bang Review

The book "Bang" by Sharon G. Flake is an invigorating story to read. This book shows the struggles between man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. his environment. The main character in this book whose name is Mann shows the troubles that many African American males experience, such as a troublesome neighborhood, racism, and the hardships of being torn between being a boy and being forced to grow up.
The conflict of this book can be seen in many different ways. The book makes it out to be that Mann, the main character in this book's father drives him out in the woods and leaves him, forcing him to find his own way home. However I interpret it to be something much deeper, the actual conflict in this book is that an African - American adolescent is left alone to fend for himself in a white man's world.
This book has a lot of strong quotes. One of my favorite quotes from this book is on page 187, 5th paragraph, 1st sentence where Mann says "Boys aint men yet". This is one of my favorite quotes because it shows how Mann feels about the situation he is put in. which is his father forcing him to become a man when he hasn't finished living out his childhood. It is also one of my favorite quotes from this story because I can relate it to my life. Everyone is giving me big responsibilities like choosing my future when I am still a boy.
All in all this entire book is a exciting experience to read. It goes far into the horrors of the "ghetto" and how people from the "ghetto" look at the white man's influence not only the black neighborhoods but influence the whole nation. If you are looking for a good book with nonstop adventure while still having touching moment's that make u want to cry. Bang is the right choice for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (RAW Rating: 3.5) - Guns really sound like that, December 30, 2005

By	The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bang! (Hardcover)

Bang! Thirteen-year-old Mann can still hear the sound of the gun which killed his six-year-old brother two years ago. He and his parents still struggle with the death and with the breakdown of their family because of it. Because his brother was gunned down while playing on their front steps, Mann will only enter the house through the back door.

Believing he is too soft for a young black boy on the brink of manhood, Mann's father decides to toughen him up so he will not be a victim of the streets. Using an ancient African ritual, he abandons Mann and his best friend Kee-Lee at a campsite miles away from home, with only a cell phone and a gun. He hopes that the struggle to get home will make men of them. But his methods are different from the African custom. In Africa boys are guided into manhood, not thrown into the streets. What results are tragic occurrences and senseless violence, which ends another life. Suddenly Mann is alone and spiraling into an almost surreal existence. As he struggles to grasp control of his life, his life preserver is his gift to draw; it is his only link to sanity. Mann becomes bitter about his life and he abandons his family; he no longer needs them.

BANG! Is a meaningful story, which is filled with disturbing circumstances. Flake delivers this raw tale with the sad, yet vivid, attitude of teenagers in urban cities. At times the story was somewhat muddled and some events were a little hard to digest, but an encouraging aspect is the relationship between Mann and his father after the tragic occurrences. His father finally accepts his own misguided judgment, and fights to recapture his son. This time he wants to be a real father. BANG is Flake's fifth book and this portrayal of inner-city life is quite sobering.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I would give the first 1/3 four stars if I could..., September 6, 2005

By	Timothy Capehart "Review-a-holic" (Dayton, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bang! (Hardcover)

"The Skin I'm In" is fabulous, but I don't think this lives up to it at all. The first third of Bang! is an excellent evocation of a family and a neighborhood in decline.

After that, the book itself declines into unbelievable, author-directed silliness. Even if everything that happens to Mann after his father abandons him in the country is taken at face value, I find it impossible to believe that for a whole month no family member and no person in authority thought to look for the boy at the stable where he loved to go daily. A stable that became convienently empty just in time for him to move into it.

And to call the child Mann when the whole book is about rites of passage into manhood is just ludicrous. The final scenes of supposed redemption between Mann and his father are some of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes I have even read in fiction of any type.

The many messages of the novel are worthy, but the novel itself is quite flawed.