Customer Reviews

NO MATTER HOW LOUD I SHOUT : A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was one of the victims listed in this book. It was an accurate account of what happened from my point of view and gave me some insight into what two affluent teenagers were doing robbing me at gunpoint in a "supposedly" low crime part of Los Angeles, The Palos Verdes Peninsula. We've since moved and my children are grown with families of their own now. It's no fun looking at "the stupid end" of a gun & one especially in an unsophisticated teenagers hand. My story in the book just goes to prove that the more money you have for defense the better deal you're going to get,period.

For the record, our family has been changed forever. I'm a lot more cynical toward someone who looks like a "gang-banger" irrespective of their race. My children have a hatred toward Koreans even though they are Asian (We are Filipinos) themselves and I'm afraid that that bias will be transferred to my grandchildren, I certainly hope not.

I just hope the two young men that robbed me that evening will turn their lives around and become productive members of society. My late Grandfather once told me that even though I would not always be able to provide every material wish for my children just spending time loving them would serve them well as adults and it has.

Thank God I'm still alive to write this. It all could have been so different.I hope none of you have to experience what we have. God bless you all.

Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed this book. Mr. Humes is a wonderful writing who has the skills to draw the reader in in such a way as to "experience" the things he is writing about. Readers, though, ought to be aware that this is a book about a very specific system-the California Juvenile Justice System-which as most people in the field know is substantially different than, say the juvenile system in Topeka, Kansas. I think part of the book's utility, and the reason I think anyone in the field out to read it, is the way in which Humes makes salient the individuals that make up the larger system in much the way Marc Parent did in Turning Stones.

I read this book for my sociology class. It was the best I've read. The stories of these kids are so involving and twisted that you wonder if this is book is fiction. This gives such insight to the problems of todays juveniles and how the court system fails them repeatedly and how the kids fail themself. Truly sad and yet reminding us how cold life can be and how fortunate some of us actually are relative to these kids. Although you can read this book in a few hours, it's still worth having on your shelf. This book is part indictment of the system and part spotlight on the troubles ahead for us all if it's not corrected.

This is the quintessential book for me. All I can say is that everyone and no one is responsible for the plight of kids like "George Trevino". His impossible situation haunted me, surfacing raw emotions. Why do we turn our backs on kids like this? We need to find an answer fast before we transform conscientious orphans into delinquents whose only dominant emotion is hate. Where is George now? Has he given up on the system yet? I hope not. Every time I think of his disadvantaged life I need an easy culprit to lay the blame on, when in reality I should be holding the person in the mirror accountable...

No Matter How Loud I Shout reads like a novel. It is an incredibly well written and compassionate view of the life of some of the country's forgotten "children". I really enjoyed it as well as "Baby ER" also by Mr. Humes.

I read this book for my sociology class. It was the best I've read. The stories of these kids are so involving and twisted that you wonder if this is book is fiction. This gives such insight to the problems of todays juveniles and how the court system fails them repeatedly and how the kids fail themself. Truly sad and yet reminding us how cold life can be and how fortunate some of us actually are relative to these kids. Although you can read this book in a few hours, it's still worth having on your shelf. This book is part indictment of the system and part spotlight on the troubles ahead for us all if it's not corrected.

This book is fast-paced, eye-opening and so very well written that I just couldn't put it down. Edward Humes takes you on a marvelous, often maddening, trip inside the secret world of juvenile court. In another writer's hands, this could have been a dull story. But No Matter How Loud I Shout swept me up from the very first page. To me, the best part is the real life characters who make up the eclectic cast of kid criminals, cops, lawyers, judges and hapless parents. The author weaves their stories together in an amazing book that reads like a novel, yet unfortunately is all too real.

This book, which just won the PEN Center USA West Literary Award in Research Nonfiction, is a must read for anyone who is concerned about youth, crime, and our justice system. Humes presents the incredibly complex situation in Los Angeles' juvenile courts to the reader, allowing us to feel it, see it, hear it, and at times even smell it. We see the impact of tougher laws, how they tie the hands of all involved, and we begin to understand that decisions are rarely based on what's right or even what's best. Instead no one seems satisfied with the way our juvenile courts work, certainly not the judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, families, and victims. Humes, who spent a year observing the court system and who taught creative writing to the some of the troubled youth, allows us to see just how vulnerable or horrific some of them are. You will never read the headlines in the same way again. The most engrossing book I've read in years

I read this book for my intro to sociology class my freshman year of college. I could not put the book down. Humes does an excellent job of stringing the reader along, from the details of the juvenile court system to following individual teenaged offenders around the city.

If you ever have to read a book for a Sociology or Criminology class, I highly recommend this book. It is so enchanting that it makes the reading incredibly easy

As a high school student enrolled in criminal justice, I was attracted to this book from the minute I was told about it. After studying the juvenile justice in depth, I find this book to be a brilliantly written poignant reminder of how wayward the juvenile justice system is. Humes provides those of us who are curious about what really goes in the juvenile justice system with truthful answers. He provides us with true accounts of stories that he has experienced, or seen occur within the system.