My reading response about the book "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. He also has alot of opinions on peoples lives and he also seems like he gives very good advice to people who need them and asks for his advice. He has helped alot of people out with their situations and he seems like one of those Guidence Counselors that you would see in a High School for the teenagers with problems on their hands and he would try to help you and give you advice on what you should do. He seems like a Guidence Counselor especially when he helps Jimmy and Kevin get their acts together and help them choose the right roads in life.
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 help him get his act together and teach him the wrongs from the rights, then he would become a good kid , finish highschool, goto college, and have a good degree; When he has his degree the he wouldn't end up living in the streets, and not end up in the court house again to be sentenced to jail for whatever he has done. 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 the only reason Duke was helping Jimmy out was because he had probably done bad stuff such as smoke weed, sell weed, rob some guy when he was Jimmy's age and Duke didnt want Jimmy to go down the road that would lead him going to jail. Also i had thought that Duke had fixed his act in time before he had done something really dumb and stupid that would make him end up in jail for a very long time. Even though Jimmy disrespects Duke sometimes, Duke is still trying to mentor Jimmy because he knows he could change him. A Mentor is a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. Even though Duke is mentoring Jimmy and can’t change how Jimmy 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.
As I had said before, I thought that Duke had a rough child hood of his own because Duke knows the right roads to choose in life and not to choose the wrong roads in life. I only thought he knew to choose the right roads in life now is because he had been through all of the situations that every teenage boy goes through and that he has learned from all of his mistakes and he just wanted to pass it on to someone who he thought could use the help and that is probably going through the same problems he went through when he was a teenager.
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 it's like they're doing community service. The Barbershop is a place where all of Dukes friends and people who need advice come to because they know people in the Barbershop would help them out when they need their on their situation. The Barbershop is also where all the men go to talk about how their life is and whats going on with their lives and the people in there give their opinions on it. Both Kevin and Jimmy have to work about 5 days a week, Monday-Friday in the Barbershop because Duke needs the help and because Duke thinks that if Jimmy and Kevin come to the Barbershop and hear all of his customers lives and give their opinons on it, then they would try and change their life from bad to good. When Duke and Jimmy get to the barbershop, they're always men who are there who talk about their lives, like how they deal with their wife, money issues, personal stories, and Duke always has opinons to give them to make things work out. 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, 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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