Customer Reviews

Gangsta in the House

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

 

 

This book was not what I as a parent needed to understand gangs. The drawings seemed crude. What was really needed for this book to work is photos of gang graffiti, hand signs, gang symbol, gang clothing, etc. For the parent who might be a visual learner, this book would not suffice. There are better identification books for parents, about gangs.

I was in a gang and sence reading this book I been dressing like a civilized person and my selfesteem and grades have improved. I thank Mr. Knox for this book it has helped myself and my family and everything in his book is so true.

How the only people to review this book are "A reader" and the author, Mike Knox, himself?! Interestingly enough, all of the "a reader" have the same writing style. Unfortunately, it's the same horrible writing style that makes up this book. Theres a reason it's out of print, and that's because it's not worth the paper it's printed on.

A suprisingly well written high level overview of gangs and why children are attracted to them.

This is not an identification guide and there are few illustrations. It does provide, however, a well thought out explanation of the gang mindset and how parents and community members can combat the spread of gangs in their neighborhood.

Knox emphasizes that children join gangs to obtain three basic needs: security, a sense of belonging and success. He then points out how the gang distorts their ability to deliver on these basic needs and how parents, community leaders and the law can be used to re-direct children who buy the myths being sold by gangs. Although simple and practical, his solutions are rarely heard about in the media because they focus on more traditional methods, i.e. parents are responsible for their children.

This book is evidently out of print, but there are several being offered for sale on amazon.com. Well worth your time to read.

Mike Knox has his finger on the pulse of America's youth. The book describes in detail how to recognize gangs and gang behavior but also lets us know what we as adults need to do to help recover these children from such a life. As an educaror I recommend this book to all of my colleagues and to all school districts, because as Mr. Knox informs us this is a national problem not just an urban problem.

I'm a fourteen year old in the eighth grade. After reading this book I became aware of some of my friends that met the criterias of gangsters. So I sarted to stay away from them and they asked me why. I told them about the book and one of them has started to get out of the gamg. The others are a little bit interested in the book but won't admit it. This book is so good and has helped me so much I want to share it with my friends parents. I would like to thank Mr.Knox for writing this book because it helped me and so far one of my friends. I give this book 5 stars.

A realistic, eye opening approach to teaching parents and guardians about a fact of life ... gang members do exist ... let's make sure they are not living under your roof ... For those in "denial" ... look at the pictures. Author Mike Knox gives you the facts. Do yourself a favor ... learn from him ... Julie

This book was very imformative. It out lined the every thing that some one would want to know about gangs and its members. As an as[piring Sociologist this book gave me a vivid view.