Book Review: We Beat The Street

Words: 923
Pages: 4

Have you ever been trapped between what's real and what's right? For every 100 women not in jail there are 83 males for them. There are about 1.5 million black males missing from ages 25-54 years old 600,000 are behind bars. And homicide is the leading cause of death for an African-American male. In the novel We Beat the Street by Sharon M. Draper, she tells us a story about three young black men who grew up in a troublefield environment.

Sampson Davis grew up on the streets of Newark, New Jersey and he always loved to kick it with the big guys. Getting into trouble was almost normal for Sam growing up. By the age of 8 years old Sam and a few of his neighborhood buddies found themselves stealing anything you can name from the local candy store called "Jack's." Jacking from Jack's wasn't like stealing candy from a baby. You had to be brave to jack from Jack's and that's exactly what they were, brave. That didn't last long once Jack got
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Meck was easily influenced to do the wrong things, he didn't really have any good guidance or motivation from his family. He hung out in the wrong crowds and by his teen years he had been to the detention juvenile facility multiple times for minor things. However, Meck was interested in acting but his mom or grandma didn't have the funds for leisure activities. For the most part in school he had good grades but his behavior was off the charts. Rameck was a class clown, everything was a joke to him. His mom was addicted to drugs by the time he turned 10 and she was carrying a baby girl. Meck's little sister. They bikks were never paid and the food was always spoiled. His grandmother tried her best to guide him as well as she could. Due to the grades meck had he was able to get accepted into University High. One of the best high schools in the city. Once he started school there his life began to change in great ways that he'd never imagine. This is where it all