My reading response is to a book I am reading, and the book is called "Handbook for Boys" by Walter Dean Myers. This book is about the right roads to choose in life, and not to pick the bad choices in life. When I first read this book, I thought this was going to be about a step by step book to take in life for boys. But instead the characters in this book talk about these deep thoughts and opinions on how they feel about the customers lives when the customers talk about their emotions in the barber shop that Duke owns. Duke is a very rich man who is also the person who owns the barbershop and he has his own community mentoring program. A community mentoring program is when a kid is about to be sent to jail and be locked up, but then if Duke thinks that they have a good life ahead of them, and then he would send them to his community mentoring program. So the community mentoring program is basically doing community service, and taking their time off of their jail sentence. He also has taken two kids into his community mentoring program named Jimmy and Kevin. Kevin is older than Jimmy and he is a senior in High School, while Jimmy is probably in his sophomore year.
Jimmy is a kid who has been given a second chance and not having to go to Jail for assault on another student in his school. His Mentor Duke Wilson has given Jimmy another chance by taking him into his own community mentoring program, because he thinks that Jimmy could have a good life and be successful in life. Also Duke thinks that if he helps Jimmy out and take him into his community mentoring program and not go to Jail, then he wouldn't end up living in the streets, and not ending up in the court house again to see if he was guilty or not to be sentenced to jail. But instead Jimmy would have a successful life and have a successful job with a successful wife and family. I observed that Duke is a really nice guy because he’s spending a lot of money from his own pocket on these kids because he thinks they have potential to have a nice life, and not end up in the streets being either dead, in rehab, or in prison. I thought that Duke is helping Jimmy because he didn't want to see good kids like Jimmy go to jail, and because he knows that if he helps Jimmy out, then he probably wouldn't do the stuff that the people in the hood would do such as selling weed, fighting, stealing, etc. Even though Jimmy disrespects Duke sometimes, Duke still is trying to mentor Jimmy because he knows he could change him. Even if he can’t change how he acts, Duke knows he could change the way Jimmy feels about some stuff like personal issues, fighting, robbing, and everything else that they talk about in the barbershop. I also thought that Duke had a rough child hood of his own, and he now knows the right roads to choose and not to choose the wrong roads in life because he probably has been through this stage in his life before, and he just wants to pass on what he knows to kids that he thinks are going through the same problem that he had went through as a child and help them.
Duke has another kid that he has taken into his mentoring program named Kevin. Duke thinks that he has a chance just like Jimmy does. But since Duke has taken both of them into his program, they work at his barber shop. They sweep up the hair and they clean the barbershop, so technically they're doing community service in the barber shop. Both Kevin and Jimmy have to work about 5 days a week, Monday-Friday and they have to go straight to the barber shop when they get out of school. When they get to the barbershop, they always talk about Duke's customer's lives, like how they deal with their wife, money issues, personal stories, and they always have their opinions on them. They talk about what their opinions of their life is, such as if it’s good or bad. They also talk like how a kid talks to the kid’s guidance counselors; they talk to them when they have no one else to talk to or to go to.
I observed that Kevin and Jimmy are picking the right roads in life, because they're doing better in school and picking up their grades. But even though Jimmy disrespects Duke and doesn't listen to him sometimes, Jimmy is changing in a way. He is changing in a way where he knows not to do anything bad, and not trying to end up in jail for about 5-10 years. I think that this is because every day when Kevin and Jimmy spend time in the Barbershop, they learn to do the right from the wrong. Like for example, the part that I am up to in my book (this was from a long time ago, I finished the book already) a guy named Lonnie G has just tried to hold up a supermarket but he doesn't get away with it, and when Duke asks what he did wrong Jimmy answers he tried to get money the easy way instead of getting money the way everybody else gets it, Work for it.
I thought this text relates to me because sometimes I would have a mentor. The mentor that I have is my sister, and we have our own little talks once in a while about how my school work is doing and if I am having trouble with anything or if I need help with any problems at school. I also have another mentor; I used to go to her once a week when I had Talent as some of you may know. She always helped me feel calm and I could just let out all of my feelings that I had felt. Also I thought this text related to me because, sometimes I try to take the easy way out of things like for example, if had to do a 5 page essay and my teacher didn't tell me what kind of font size I needed to use and I was lazy at the moment and didn’t feel like doing work, I would usually change the font to size 14-16 so that I wouldn't have to write so much. Also so that it would look like I wrote a lot, meanwhile I knew I was suppose to use size 12 font.
I think that the reader should feel and see if they could relate to Jimmy or Kevin in any way, like how I could relate to them. Also I want my reader to know that this book was really good, and to the boys, I think they should give this book a try and read it. Because if you're having a hard time figuring out the right from the wrongs or if you’re going down the wrong path in life, then this book is perfect for you to read
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