Book of the Week: Tyrell
Tyrell grew up with eight buildings as his whole world. He lived with his family in the Bronxwood Houses. Maybe not the nicest apartments in the city, but certainly nicer than the homeless shelter where he lives now with his mom and brother since his dad has been in prison (again).
Now his world is bigger than eight buildings, but sometimes it feels a lot smaller. His choices seem so limited.
“I really wanna put my fist through a wall. I can’t calm myself down. I can feel the blood pounding in my brain. I gotta do something. I wanna go somewhere, But I don’t got nowhere to go.”
He needs to make money to get his family into a real apartment again, but he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes his dad made, which landed him in jail. Trying to stay clean in Tyrell’s world isn’t easy.
But he has a plan. He isn’t going to live in a shelter forever. And he isn’t going to end up like his father. He’s going to save his family himself since his mother obviously can’t do it and all the “at risk” programs and social workers who’ve been in and out of his life can’t do it. He’s going to figure out a way to make money and take care of them on his own without getting into trouble. That’s a lot of pressure for a fifteen-year-old.
Tyrell is immediate and real. Highly recommended for libraries wanting to increase their urban fiction for teens.
