SHAKEDOWN STREET [Mass Market Paperback]

Jonathan Nasaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

Shakedown Street...it's not a place, it's a state of mind. That's why fourteen-year old Caro decides that no matter what, she'll survive by panhandling and picking trash, while her mother scrounges every cent from a nowhere job so she can get them a Place to live.

There are good people living on the dangerous streets -- Rass, Rudy, and Wharf Rat -- who teach Caro how to make it in a world where most people don't care about the homeless. Caro and Momma feel lucky when Rudy finds an abandoned house in Berkeley to use as a squat. Soon the place will be torn down, so the two are in a race to find a real home, the home Caro's been dreaming of. But dreams never got anyone off Shakedown Street. Caro and Momma need luck, and they need cash, fast.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

PW commented that this portrait of a homeless teenage girl "remains inexplicably perky and glib" and "tends to trivialize very serious issues." Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-12. Caro's mother is a caring parent who is a sucker for offbeat religious groups that tend to leave her poorer and not much wiser. Now that the latest guru has run off with the community assets, Caro and Momma have no place to live. As street people, they find life a daily struggle to stay warm and dry, get something to eat, avoid predators and authority figures. With humor, insight, and compassion, but without sentiment, 14-year-old Caro, the narrator, describes the other street people they come to know. Among them are alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves, lunatics, and those who have just run out of luck. They are flawed human beings just like those who live in houses, only more vulnerable. When a friend finds an abandoned house in Berkeley, Caro accepts with gratitude the shelter and the company of the other street people who move in. She attends school and makes friends, but then the squatters are forced out with tear gas, and Caro almost becomes a prostitute just to live. This book offers a fascinating look at the culture of the homeless, an engrossing and believable story line, and a memorable heroine. Sheilamae O'Hara --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440219302
• ISBN-13: 978-0440219309
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,728,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Shakedown Street Summary, October 19, 2003

By 

Ali (Mass) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shakedown Street (Hardcover)

With no car, no home, and only a pocket-full of money, Caro Reilly struggles to survive on the streets of San Francisco. In Jonathon Nasaw's fiction, Shakedown Street, Caro and her mom learn first hand what it's like to be homeless. When the guru of Caro's village runs off with the community's wealth, Caro and her mother no longer have a home. Now that they're living on the streets and sleeping in the parks of San Francisco, Caro's life is going to be all about panhandling, picking through trash for food, staying dry from the rain, and for her first time, experiencing life of the homeless.

4.0 out of 5 stars Shakedown Street, May 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: SHAKEDOWN STREET (Mass Market Paperback)

Shakedown Street is the perfect book for growing teenagers. Caro, the main character, is a young girl who lives with her traveling, religious mother. Caro and her friends deal with a lot of natural, emotional, and physical problems. Caro deals with troublesome situations such as drugs, puberty, sex, and the "hard knock life". Caro and her mother move from home to home. They make many friends who are homeless, sick, or perhaps melancholoy, such as themselves and live with them for a period time. Definetley a good book for the growing teen. I strongly reccomend this book to youths between the ages of thirteen and seventeen.