Customer Reviews

Gangs and the Abuse of Power (Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence)

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

 

 

I'm 8 years old, my name is Mariana and I live in Chicago. I hate street gangs. I have an uncle who joined a gang when he was young, and he always tells us stories sbout it and how its the biggest mistake for a young person to join a gang. He remembers when he was 19 and watched a friend beat up a old man. He thought it was funny at the time, but later felt real bad about it, and now gives money to the homeless shelter. I will never join a gang. To the San Diego youth officer that says that Mr. Williams books are boring to kids? You say you have better books for us to read, and that we should not be talked down to, but sorry, yes we do need strait talk not sweet talk. And the books are boring for you probly because your not a kid. Do you play with GI Joe, and do you know how it feels to be a leader when you are 19 years old? I do, and im not even 9 yet. Why? because someone who DOES know told me. The books will help. I would like to meet the author one day, and bring him to my friends houses so he can tell them in person. That would make a kid feel important. I don't care that he was a gang member. You can't change the past, but you can change the future.

I found this book both insulting and a waste of time. I read it ony because of the hype on the media behind the whole Tookie circus.

Maybe not for educators, most likely not for students, but for up and coming Lil Gs this book tells it like it is ... straight forward with excellent phonetic spellings in the back. This book steers you away from the bad and toward the good. Stay Clean and Say NO to glue. Dig the art, too, man. Pick this book up, G. Eighth Street Cadillac High Rollers in the House.

Why is it that people are so judgemental of the black man who makes mistakes...Even sometimes when there is no solid proof of his guilt. These books by Mr. Williams are positive for kids in inner city communities because they expose the truth about the struggles inner city youth are facing on a day to day basis. I bet both of the reviewers that posted 1 for ratings are white racist... I say that becuase Minority's have been murdered at the hands of white folks for many years.... very few ever got the death penalty. Where was the justice for slayed minorities. And why didn't people protest the various businesses that the Klan formed after they committed so many harsh crimes against blacks. I hope Tookie Williams books not only gain a kind of unexplainable revenue that shocks the world, but I hope that troubled youth read his book, identify with it, prove you hater wrong and go on to do great things in life one day twenty plus years down the line, giving a book they read by Tookie Williams credit for saving their lives...

Once that occurs, he'll get his peace prize, and so will all the supporters that believed he was a life worth saving.

I was forced to read this idiot's garbage years ago and yeah I was a kid then, too. It was just as ridiculous then as it now that people are under the assumption that kids will go out and commit atrocities because we didn't read these kinds of books. You know what, I don't go around shooting people for $100 in their register because I already knew that was wrong. I don't need someone telling me that a life in gangs is difficult and wrong path to take- because I already had my self-esteem and knowledge of what is right and wrong. I learned that from my brothers. Parents and family members- Stop wasting your cash on garbage like this and start talking to each other. It makes more of a differnce than reading it in some lame book written by a criminal.