Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scorpions - The stinging reality, October 9, 1999
By A Customer
Scorpions, a book about a gang. Very true to life. It really makes you think about the society today. Drive-by shootings, drugs, sexual harrassment, mostly by gangs. In this book, it really makes you think about these gangs and the dangers of being involved with them. That's what happened to Jamal, isn't it? This is a very sad story about a poor family who is just kind of having to eke out on the edge. Jamal's brother is in jail, and he wants Jamal to take over his gang. The problem is, the whole gang's whacko. This story is very well-written, and you can actually feel Jamal's fear and his sadness. This book is excellent, and I reccomend it to anyone who likes read.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scorpions: Awesome!, February 20, 2002
What happens when you combine peer pressure, a teenage gang, a somewhat unstable family, and drugs? You get Scorpions, a young adult book by African-American author Walter Dean Myers. Jamal, the main character, goes through all of the troubles of adolescence, beginning with the loss of a loved one and continuing with such things as difficulties at school, tension at home, and dealing with a gang. Though Jamal and all of the main characters are black, all teens can relate to Jamal's problems. The main contributors to this book's amazing flavor and personality are the style in which it is written, the many diverse characters, and the plot's appeal to teens of all races.
This book deals with the problems a black family has and the ways they must cope with these problems. Myers, a black man himself, has a feel for the way that lower-class black people tend to talk. In fact, all of the dialogues between Jamal and his family or other black people in his surroundings are in the characteristic dialect. This is difficult to get used to at first, but after you realize that this is exactly how the characters would talk, you are drawn into the intricacy of this slightly tweaked version of our language. This language style makes Scorpions all the more fun to read because all of the characters think and speak in an unusual manner.
The characters in Scorpions are very diverse. Jamal, Sassy, and Mrs. Hicks (we know her by no other name) are a lower-class black family. Jamal, a boy who has just turned 13, really doesn't know what to do with his life and doesn't deal with trouble well. He can be laid back (sometimes too much - like in school), but can also be mean to Sassy. Sassy is a typical bossy younger sister, and Mrs. Hicks is a hardworking, God-fearing, tough-loving black mother. Jamal's best friend, Tito, is vaguely Puerto Rican, but this isn't brought out very well. Tito lives with his grandmother, Abuela, but other than their Hispanic names, they don't seem Hispanic at all. They do no speak in the dialect like all of the other characters, so they come off as being somewhat flat. Tito is very laid back. The boys in the gang (the Scorpions) are all much older than Jamal and Tito, and they drink and smoke a lot. This comes through in their personalities, for they're often abusive and/or have weird ideas about things, such as the law and how to treat others. The contrast between the uncaring Scorpion members and the laid-back Jamal and Tito brings all of their traits out more. Jamal's every last trait is expressed as he goes through probably the worst time in his life.
Jamal's brother, Randy, was arrested and jailed a few months before this book begins. Jamal and his mother are trying to raise money to post Randy's bail, and Jamal eventually ends up running into Randy's old gang members, the Scorpions. Randy's right-hand man, Mack, wants Jamal to become the leader of the Scorpions and run cocaine in Randy's stead. At the same time, Jamal is also having trouble in school with a boy named Dwayne. The Scorpions give Jamal a gun, and he threatens Dwyane. We see the problems that the Scorpions and their gun are bringing to Jamal just as Jamal goes to a park late at night with Tito to ditch the gun. They run into Indian and Blood, two drunk and high Scorpion members, who try to kill Jamal. Does Jamal die?
The plot alone has something for everyone. Everyone, at some point in their life, deals with things like peer pressure, troubles in school, and fights. We only see one way to deal with these things through Jamal. We can relate to the troubles that he experiences, but we do not need to agree with the path he chooses. This book is meant to be a good example of how giving in to problems can drastically alter your life.
The main contributors to this book's amazing flavor and personality are the style in which it is written, the many diverse characters, and the plot's appeal to teens of all races. Several slight problems are present in Scorpions, but they do not ruin the book at all. You will get used to the dialect and the fact that Tito lacks a bit of a personality. Do not read this book looking for a good example! Read Scorpions to gain reassurance that people out there are dealing with the same problems that you are. Jamal and his problems are the same problems teens all over the world deal with, and Jamal gives in. Scorpions is an example of what not to do in your life.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
My Life, January 23, 2006
My Life
Scorpions is about a kid named Jamal and his brother goes to prison and his brother wants him to take over his gang. And Jamal ends up taking over but he doesn't get respected and the guy who said he could join and help him get in he was a wino and his name was Mack. And he didn't know what he was talking about so Jamal joined.
And a guy named Indian and Blood were in the gang called the Scorpions they didn't respect Jamal because he was only 12 and everyone else was either 15 or older so they didn't respect him like he wanted to be. And eventually he got out of the gang because his friend Tito didn't want to be in the gang any more and Jamal kept getting in a fight with a guy named Dwayne.
And Jamal got a gun from Mack the wino and he scared Dwayne with it and that was the last time they fought. And Jamal almost got caught because Dwayne told his mom about it and his mom told the school. And later on Jamal gets out of the Scorpions and Tito gets in trouble because Jamal was getting beat up by Indian and Jamal seen a knife and he thought Indian was going to stab him so he just lets him beat him up and he gets knocked out and all of a sudden he hears gun shots and his friend Tito shot Indian and Blood. And Tito got scared and they ran off and Tito went home and so did Jamal. And Tito didn't want to tell his sister about but he had too and his sister got mad and said that this neighborhood is too bad and they moved to Puerto Rico. Jamal was really sad.
My connection is that he gets mad a lot and he doesn't like it when people tell him what to do and that's how I feel sometimes.
And I think the author did a great job because this really could happen.
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