From Publishers Weekly
In his second memoir, Stringer (
Grand Central Winter) retraces a troubled 1960s New York City childhood, one full of hope and promise that deteriorated into years of emotional pain. Born out of wedlock, Stringer and his brother lived with their financially struggling mother until bills overcame her, compelling her to turn them over to foster care. Stringer describes how, as a youngster, he fought other kids, kicked over desks and bad-mouthed instructors, never questioning his school counselors when they said he was full of anger. He questioned the difference between his black world and that of the white, "normal" one, where hate and intolerance seemed usual. Stringer was committed for two years to a school for at-risk children, where his Stringer's reputation for having a wicked temper followed him. Springer's lean prose renders his mother as a resourceful, determined woman who buys her rageful son a punching bag to vent his anger. Only through poetry and art did Springer find outlets for self-expression and a fresh start for the reminder of his youth (until his adult crash with drug addiction). Springer deftly tells a believable, candid and vivid tale of a person scarred by his past.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In this gritty, wrenching memoir that is all about differences, both seen and unseen, Stringer tells the stories of his childhood in fits and starts. His episodic yet eloquent writing style suits his subject perfectly. Stringer's mother, a single black woman who did her best to raise her offspring on food stamps and illegal day work in a wealthy white town, placed her two young children in foster care. Six years later, she retrieved them. The atmosphere of small-town New York, which the author separates into "chocolate" and "vanilla," is captured in vignettes. Memories–from the first time he lied to his mother to his relationship with God to the time he and his friends found a dead baby in a paper bag–are distilled through the filter of an angry boy. Honest and unashamed, he describes, but never tries to justify, the rage that landed him at Hawthorne Cedar Knolls, a school for kids at risk. Submersion into this nearly all-Jewish community of young men–quite a shock to Catholic Caverly–was only the beginning of his experiences at "sleepaway school." Unfocused and unsure of himself, he gradually began to overcome his frustration and anger. Teens who like realistic reads such as Dave Pelzer's
AChild Called "It" (Health Communications, 1995) or Terry Trueman's
Stuck in Neutral (HarperCollins, 2000) will want to read this one.
–Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
