Thomas Chatterton Williams reflects on his dual persona growing up in suburban America. He portrays the struggle between the academic opportunities his father, a self taught scholar, provided in the family home, a home filled with 15, 000 books and the allure of Hip Hop culture that permeated black youth in the 1990's. The story is punctuated with lyrics from Hip Hop fame such as Biggie Smalls, Dr. Dre and Ice-T.While Williams offers a peak into the black male psyche of what it means to be a young black man, it is the unconditional love and confidence that his father exudes that strongly shapes Williams' choices of self over the black community. I found myself waiting for Williams to recount another story of his father's experience as an educated black man from the south. His father was forced to read by flashlight in the closet as his family frowned on his academics. His marriage to a white woman, Thomas' mother, occurred when interracial marriage was against the law in many southern states.
Williams' story speaks of the black experience but I can see the struggle that many adolescents, black or white, endure during their teen years as they navigate the foundations of family and the pull of peers and popular culture.
This book is recommended for students in grades 11 and 12.
