Ms. Flake has poignantly captured the voices of teens today...while her voices are those of urban, black boys, her stories and poems transcend geography and ethnicity. The boys in this book are just that--boys. One is getting married, trying desperately not to throw up his morning Fruit Loops while doing the "right thing" by marrying his pregnant teen girlfriend. This blend of coming-of-age and childhood innocence and fear is carried effortlessly throughout this book. These boys' stories are told through a mish-mash of poems, short stories, diary entries, and letters. And while many of these entries contain humor, they also deal with terrifyingly real issues of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, dying too young (violently), and discrimination via stereotypes.
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