Rate this book

You Don't Even Know Me: Stories And Poems About Boys (2010)

by Sharon G. Flake(Favorite Author)

4 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

142310014X (ISBN13: 9781423100140)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Jump At The Sun

review 1: Between the genre and the subject matter, I really didn't care for this book. The short stories were paced slow and the subject matter was about being obsessed with girls in a few of the stories. While I admire honesty and openness, I don't really care for the level of disrespect for women I see in this book. The reason I read this book was for my young adult services class for my library science degree. I have to read books of a variety of genres. This happens to be one of my last genre choices for the semester.
review 2: Crystal Hansen, LS 538. Flake, S. G. (2010). You don't even know me: Stories and poems about boys. New York: Jump at the Sun. Genre: Short Stories. Print book. Selected from Books and Authors database. Highly recommend. From a female perspect... moreive, it's hard to say whether this (also female) author accurately captures the male point-of-view, but I can definitively say that Sharon Flake presents characters who have heart. "You Don't Even Know Me" is a collection of short stories about various African-American teenage boys who live in urban settings. In each story, the central character is living through a challenging situation. Some have struggles of large magnitude-- like dealing with suicide and depression, gangs, and contracting HIV; and there are those who face other kinds of troubles, such as one boy whose morbidly obese father is valiantly trying to walk through the mall to buy his son new sneakers. And it is worth noting that in most cases, the boys are also doing what many teenage boys do; searching for girlfriends. While this collection is largely made up of short stories, it is punctuated by brief, insightful poems. The poem "You Don't Even Know Me" inspired the book's title, and these lines in particular illustrate the collection's theme: "I've been wondering lately,/ Trying to figure out just how it could be/ That you can see me so often/ And still don't know a thing about me." These lines allude to how society portrays young, Black males. The media frequently depicts this demographic group in one (often unflattering) way, but these stories characterize individuals that don't fall in line with this notion. This book is a powerful and touching reminder that people usually don't fall into neat stereotypes or categories, and that there is always more to human beings than meets the eye. less

Download links for: You Don't Even Know Me: Stories and Poems About Boys

Advertising