"I walk 'round some more, buy a loose cigarette from the bodega on the corner, smoke it and feel myself calming down a little. Novisha right. I know she just looking out for me. She don't want me ending up like my pops. In jail. Again." (pg.7)
Tyrell is fed up. He doesn't want to live in the shelter, with cockroaches crawling everywhere, without any food except junk food from the machine down the hall, because it doesn't even have a kitchen. He doesn't want his friends trying to get him to sell drugs to make money for his mom and little brother. And he doesn't want his mom expecting him to be the man of the house, at fifteen. The only thing in his life that is good is Novisha, his smart, beautiful girlfriend, who plans to get out of the projects and go to college. All Tyrell wants is to get through this, for his dad to get out of jail and take care of his family again, and for he and Novisha to get married, so he can take care of her while she's in college. But then there's Jasmine, the cute Hispanic girl who's one room over in the shelter. She knows what he's been through, and she listens to him. When reading Novisha's diary, he finds out that she wishes he had plans to go to college too, and that she hadn't told her friends or mom that he dropped out of high school. He gets close to Jasmine, who helps him find food for his little brother, and spreads the word about a huge party he's throwing to raise money for first and last month's rent on an apartment, so he can get his family out of the shelter. Who's his girl - Novisha or Jasmine? What does he do with the money he makes at the party? You'll have to read to find out.
Tyrell is one of the most gripping urban teen novels I've ever read. The book gets you right inside Tyrell's head, and lets you knowwhat goes through the mind of a fifteen year old boy. Yikes! There's a lot going on in there. Tyrell's life is beyond tough, but he never really gives up the way his mom has - just waiting on her husband, in jail, and unmotivated to make things better by just getting a job. At times, this book made me almost sick, knowing the squalor they live in, in New York City, is also not so far away, in parts of Chicago. It gave me a glimpse into the life of someone who's problems are so much greater than anything I've dealt with, but who still manages to figure it out.
