Teen Fiction - Peoples & Cultures, Teen Fiction - Poetry, Teen Fiction - Romance & Friendship

Street Love

Name: Street Love
Author: Walter Dean Myers
ISBN: 9780064407328

by Walter Dean Myers

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Overview

Your first love is totally wrong for you.
Do you follow your heart?
Or do you run away?

Junice

What am I doing? He’ll take one quick look And wish he was anywhere else but here I’m already ashamed of what I think He will think of me, of the life I lead

Damien

Yes, she is the fruit that will Sustain me and yes, she brings A rain that I know can chill But it is a rain so sweet and sings A song my soul insists That I follow, if I would exist As more than I have ever, ever been If my mother calls it evil, then I embrace the sin

Synopsis

Your first love is totally wrong for you. Do you follow your heart? Or do you run away?

Michael L. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers delivers an evocative tale of star-crossed urban love, reminding us that before we can be true to someone else, we must first be true to ourselves.

Publishers Weekly

Myers's (Monster) compellingly readable novel in verse unfolds through an array of characters, all linked by Damien Battle and Junice Ambers who both live in Harlem but come from very different worlds. Damien has been accepted to Brown University; Junice's mother has been sentenced to 25 years for possession and drug dealing. A pair of early rap poems set up a rivalry between Damien and Sledge (whose "crew... wore their colors"), and also Damien's fascination with a "beauty" who "walks darkly, as if her mind weighs down/ Her steps," later revealed to be Junice. Myers crafts some memorable moments here, as when Junice describes her mother ("She gave freely/ To those in need, or to those who, like/ Her, were broken, and needed a fix") or when Miss Ruby, Junice's grandmother, expresses grief for her convicted daughter in a blues poem ("Yeah, it's hard, baby/ It's hard right down to the bone/ I said Oh, it's hard baby/ It's hard right down to the very bone/ It's hard when you're a woman/ And you find yourself all alone") and the banter between Damien and a buddy. Yet some readers may wish for a deeper understanding of what draws Damien to Junice, and why he risks his own family's upheaval and his future at Brown for this new romance. Though both Damien and Junice come off as sympathetic characters, their attraction to each other remains a mystery. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers is a New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author who has garnered much respect and admiration for his fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people. Winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award, he is considered one of the preeminent writers for children. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

VOYA - Kathy Starks

Myers ventures into the popular style of novels written in verse with his latest offering. With its dazzling, graffiti-esque cover and rap-like rhythms, the novel transforms the Romeo and Juliet story into an episode from the here and now. Damien is The Hero, "wearing his seventeen years easily around broad shoulders." A chance encounter with Junice, the troubled Beauty, sends his life in a new direction, much to the dismay of his ambitious mother, who expects great things of him, including advanced degrees and marriage to Roxanne. Junice has little energy to cultivate a new relationship with Damien, despite her attraction to his sweet smile and gentle nature. She must care for her younger sister and elderly grandmother when her mother is sent to prison for possession and distribution of drugs. The novel's format allows the reader to peer directly into the thoughts and feelings of the main characters, as in "Junice and Melissa" when Junice says, "I have to open my sister's mouth / And fill it with thoughts as hard / As stones so she can practice her lines / She needs to speak clearly / As she lies." The action is set using poem titles such as "Junice Ambers looking From the Window of the Bus" and "Damien Standing on the Platform, waiting for the Uptown 2." Myers's experiment with the verse form may surprise some, but hip-hop fans, readers of poetry, and hopeless romantics will respond to the emotional vibrancy of this powerful work.

Children's Literature - Kathleen Isaacs

College-bound 17-year-old Damien Battle is a Harlem success story in the making, but when he connects with streetwise Junice Ambers, he embraces a whole new world. In a varied series of carefully crafted poems, free verse, and rap in different voices, a master writer brings freshness to an old story. Will their love be strong enough to withstand the obstacles set up by their family and class differences as well as the decisions of the New York family court? Myers is wise enough to leave that question unanswered, focusing on the emotional dance as they slowly come together. The gritty city background is clear but not obtrusive; the contrast between Damien's dreams of success and his rival Sledge's embrace of hate is presented early on, as is the contrast between his successful family and the dissolution of Junice's when her mother is sentenced to 35 years in jail for drug-dealing. The form of the narrative allows readers to get inside the head of both participants and onlookers. For the adult reader, like Damien's parents, the tragic waste of his promise is akin to Romeo's death; for teens, the romance of this accessible love story will probably be the attraction.