All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook (audiobook)
by Leslie Connor
AR Level 3.8, 11 points
Most people are taught that people in prison are dangerous criminals, and there’s a stigma attached to convicts. Most of that is just, but not all criminals are dangerous. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook is about a boy named Perry who grew up in a minimum security prison. His mother’s crime is ambiguous for most of his life, but he knows the people he spends his time with are kind, loving, and not at all dangerous, but quite the opposite. When Perry is taken out of the prison and the warden is suspended, he has no idea why, but he finds himself living with the district attorney in charge of his mother’s case, and he sets out to get her paroled and uncover the secret of her conviction.
What I liked about this book is shines light on people in prisons. Not everyone who has committed a crime is dangerous or evil, and some are sorry for what they did. It paints the prisoners as a family, along with those who run it. I think for children, it might teach them not to judge a book by its cover. We should judge people by their character.
What I didn’t like about this book was how sad I felt for Perry’s mother. She suffered a lot, and I wanted things to be better for her. I was glad to finally find out what put her in prison, but it left me wanting to know more about other characters in the story. Maybe I’ll wait for the sequel.
