If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser

If I Grow Up Reviews

• 
  Lisa Wolf

  When my reluctant reader son came to me and told me I had to read this book... well, clearly I needed to see what it was that had made such an impression on him.
  
  If If Grow Up is a tough, clear-eyed look at inner city life, as seen from the perspective of DeShawn. We meet DeShawn at age 12, still a child but growing up fast. He lives in the projects with his grandmother and older sister, and knows to drop to the floor when there's the sound of gunshots and to steer clear when the Douglass Disciples are coming through.
  
  Death and violence are everyday facts of life. DeShawn goes to school, but there's little point when the teachers rotate out as soon as they can get a better assignment and most of the kids are there just to pass the time until they too can join a gang. DeShawn is determined to get an education and stay out of gang life, but with each passing year, his choices narrow further.
  
  This book is devastating in so many ways. The author shows the hopelessness of inner city life, where children grow up without parents, where parents bury children caught in the crossfire, where murderous gang leaders may also be the only supportive adult figure for many of the kids who so desperately need someone to guide them. Through DeShawn, we see year by year as the goal of a better life dwindles away into impossibility, and we also see the inevitability of gang life for a kid who's forced to think about feeding his hungry family at much too young an age.
  
  While parts of the book, especially the ending, felt kind of preachy, I had to remind myself that If I Grown Up is firmly aimed at teen readers, and that I needed to let go of my adult reader perspective and think about what this book might mean to a teen who hasn't seen life reflected on the page in this way before.
  
  I know my son was really affected by the story. I've never seen him not be able to put down a book, or find a book so meaningful that he both wants to read it again and wanted me to read it right away so we could talk about it. And that really says a lot.
  
• 
  Meaghan

  I loved almost all of this book. Strasser paints a very realistic picture of a good boy, a smart kid with potential, sliding down into perdition largely because of forces beyond his control. DeShawn tries different ways to get out of what seems like destiny for every black man in the projects, but his route is always blocked. A teacher advises him to apply to go to a magnet high school, but because of the bad education he got earlier, DeShawn's aptitude test scores aren't high enough. He tries to stay away from the local gangs as much as possible, but living among them, he can't help but get caught in their mess. His father is never mentioned, his mother is dead, his grandmother is on welfare and his sister has two kids by the time she's sixteen. And so, bit by bit, DeShawn disappears into the shadow of gangs and drugs and violence.
  
  I was impressed that Strasser was able to keep profanity and graphic violence out of the story, given its setting. This book would be suitable for 12- to 13-year-olds and up.
  
  I would have given it four stars, maybe five, but I hated the ending of the story. Not the fact that DeShawn ended up in prison -- that was quite a realistic outcome -- but the utter preachiness of the last chapter, where DeShawn quotes statistics and speculates about the future of the ghetto youth. This is Todd Strasser speaking, not DeShawn, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. It's a pity, because the rest of the book was so good.
• 
  K-C

  Case Marino
  D period English
  12/21/17
  Ms. Vandenburgh
  If I grow up
  Imagine a book that follows the cities and slums no one talks about. Not the ones where you can live the American dream but the projects where dreams go to die.
  If I grow up is a novel about a boy in the projects named DeShawn. DeShawn grows up in a poor, urban city with his sister and grandmother. The style of the writing very smooth and choppy at the same time. The book skips long periods of time because it only tells a snippet of the story at a time. About every forty-five pages the setting is moved to another year in DeShawn’s life. He starts out as a smart 12-year-old child with an offer to go to a better school out of the hood. With subtle but noticeable changes in DeShawns life such as the murder of his stepbrother LaRue.
  DeShawn tries his best to fight the temptation of the promise of big bucks and a flashy lifestyle due to gang life. Early in his life, he was promised a better life by Marcus, the leader of the disciples, more money to provide for his family.
  At 13 years DeShawn meets the love of his life, Tanisha. DeShawn wants to take Tanisha on a date but he doesn't have the money for it. He explains his problem to Marcus and he gives him $50 for the date.
  The temptation and declining goes on for a few more years until DeShawn cracks. The sight of his step-brother being shot in the head by his rival gang broke him. He knew that his sister having to raise two twins kids without a father and being responsible for taking care of her grandmother who can no longer work because an illness wouldn't work for him. That night we went to the top floor of his apartment and asked Marcus for a job.
  This was the turning point in the book for DeShawn. At this point, DeShawn turned from a good smart boy into a thug. Although this transformation seems out of the blue, it was expected from the start when Marcus and the Disciples were first mentioned.
  The book has an overall depressing and hopeless theme to it. Although there are bits of hope, they are quickly overshadowed by the events that happen to DeShawn. At times the novel focuses on other parts of DeShawn’s life instead. A whole section focuses on his friends and the antics he gets himself into. For example at 14 Lightbulb got a dog and named it Snoop. But even with the focus on Lightbulb and Snoop the gang life is still present.
  Overall I enjoyed reading this book. I would rate it 8/10. The early stages of the book is fairly boring but the later stages are action-packed. After finishing the book the early pages seem irrelevant to the end story. I will read more of Todd Strasser’s work if I’m put in a situation where I have to read a realistic fiction book for school.
  
  Recommended age 12+
  Author: Todd Strasser
  Goodreads rating: 4.1/5
  
• 
  Karen & Gerard

  Through the fictional characters of DeShawn, his best friend, Terrell, and the gang leaders in If I Grow Up, Todd Strasser gives the reader a vivid picture of the pressures people face living in poverty with gang members ruling the neighborhood in the inner-city.  I really liked this book because it followed DeShawn and Terrell as they grew up in the projects and let me see a world I am totally unfamiliar with; on the other hand, it is disturbing that people in America are actually living like this in some places. 
   
  Although DeShawn and Terrell were best friends, they had different goals.  At age 12, Terrell looked forward to getting into a gang while DeShawn wanted to stay out of it.  DeShawn was generally a kid who just wanted to help out his family, stay alive to see another day, do the right thing and  stay out of trouble.  Had he made some different choices, he may have succeeded.  Strange how things turned out.  You trust the wrong person, and boom—you’re dead.
   
  If I Grow Up story kept my interest all the way through, right from page 1.  It’s well written and has clean language.  I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about teenagers.
  
• 
  Natalie

  This is a MUST read. This is a book about a young African American boy living in the projects. Faced with his mothers death, drive bys, a selfish sister, and battling gangs, DeShawn struggles with things kids shouldn't have to even think about. He is thrown in to the gang world for reasons that are out of his control. Falling in love for the first time is a beautiful roller coaster. But when the one you love is the sister of a rival gang member things can get pretty dangerous. DeShawn wants more for himself. He knows there's more to life than drugs, violence, and hate. The problem is, for him, becoming a member of the Fredrick Douglass "family" is the easiest way to provide for his family. I talked outloud to DeShawn on several occasions. Your anticipation, worry, and disbelief will propel you through this book.
• 
  Sarah Donovan

  For upper middle and high schoolers. It's about gang life in the projects, family, hopelessness, poverty, and growing up. but it is really about surviving. Strasser did his research to imagine DeShawn's life from from 12 to 28, but I was always aware of the author's voice rather than getting lost in the narrator's telling. There was a didacticism to the story that felt more like the author's project than the narrator reflecting on lessons learned. That said, I do see this book as a powerful book group text for students mature enough (or experienced enought) to make sense of the graphic details and be a little critical of the book's representation of gang life and the projects. I'd also encourage readers to do further inquiry into the facts that begin each chapter regarding the history of housing projects. This book will start an important social justice conversation.
• 
  Sarah BT

  This was a short read and it read very quickly. DeShawn lives in the projects and the novel starts out with him at age 12. He wants to get out and do something with his life, but living in a place where gangs rule, he grows up and soon finds he has no choice. I thought the story was very well done and while it was sad and infuriating and DeShawn often left me annoyed at his choices, I understood why he made them. I also felt the author really did his research and wrote a story that felt real. I just wish there would have been more explanation at the end about those who got out of the projects-I wanted to know how. What did they do? What choices did they make? I do think it's a book that needs to be read.
  
  
• 
  Heather

  Powerful little book. The main character DeShawn wants to resist gangs but is drawn into them slowly because of peer influence. The most interesting character was Marcus, the leader of the Disciples, whom the author made very human and all the more magnetic to both us and DeShawn because of that. The author included little non-fiction snippets of info about incarceration, poverty, and black men in between chapters. I think the intensity of the story would speak to kids, who could also learn from the info along the way.
• 
  Nicole Roach

  We often read stories of people escaping their childhood and creating something of their lives. This book shows that it is very hard to escape your culture and make something different of your life. "Three times more black men live in jail cells than in college dorms." Education equals power and freedom. This would make a great read aloud in a junior high or high school classroom.
• 
  Cody Armendariz

  The book was good. It made me think about my own life.
  I would recommend it to anyone who likes drama and a bit of mystery
• 
  kelly

  No no no...I didn't like this book at all.
  
  This book is the story of DeShawn, a kid growing up in a housing project in an large, unnamed American city (many details in the setting, however, seem to suggest that the book takes place in Chicago). When the story begins he is a wide-eyed 12-year-old, living in poverty with his grandmother and watching the violence and gang warfare around him. It ends 5 years later with the main character at 17, now a hardened gang leader and participating the same violence he once feared.
  
  This is a quick read aimed at lower-level young adult readers. While I can understand the simplicity of it to certain degree, for me it was way too simple. There were far too many stereotypes here to be of any teachable use, i.e., a kid living in the hood, watching people die, no money to eat, hates school, learns how to hustle, joins a gang, etc. It's too predictable--nothing we or his youth audience haven't already read before or know by heart from a song by their favorite rapper. The language is also dreadfully out of touch for the lifestyle the author's describing, even by 2009's standards. Girls are "shorties," crackheads are "hypes," and if you act up, you'll get your "butt" kicked. LOL urban teenagers don't talk that way. Just sayin.'
  
  There are sections throughout the book and at the end in which the author uses stats to make political arguments about inequity, crime, education, etc. These blurbs don't belong here. It's as if the author doesn't trust his own story to make his point and let the reader get it.
  
  In the back of this book, the author says that he wrote this because he was shocked by what he found in speaking to impoverished urban teens. White suburban ignorance is exactly why this book is one of the reasons why I feel diverse literature BY diverse authors is so important. While I am not saying that white authors cannot write about black people, his lack of true understanding on the culture of Black poverty is apparent. Giving statistics on drop out and incarceration rates to a young and presumably black audience does not necessarily inspire them to stay in their failing schools or away from the gangs that feed their families, particularly if they are from the very doomed neighborhoods he's writing about. What you get here is a tone of pity and not empathy, which is the opposite of what was probably intended.
  
  Don't read this book.
• 
  Lizbeth Sablon

  The book If I Grow Up by: Todd Strasser was honestly one of the best books I’ve read. There was so much realism and I feel like this book would leave a major impact on how people perceive certain areas. This book was written in the perspective of a boy named Deshawn who lives in the projects. In a dog eat dog world he doesn’t have many choices. He can either keep going to school and have a job that could barely get him by or he could choose to join a gang and fight his way up to the top. “ In the projects you don’t have any choices. Not any good ones anyways.” That is something that is said throughout the book and I feel like that helped further show the struggle that Deshawn went through trying to stay out of trouble.
  
  Personally, I didn’t really like the ending of the book but the ending did make sense. The reason I didn’t like it was because I had grown so attached to Deshawns’ character and I wanted him to get the life he deserved after all he sacrificed for everyone he loved. However, I see why people wouldn’t agree with me because there is a logical reason on why the book ended the way it did. Obviously if you commit a crime there will be consequences, that’s just how life works. I am not justifying his actions at all but, after everything he went through it made me sad to see his journey ended the way it did.
  
  Throughout the book but more towards the end there is a lot of talk between Deshawn and his friends about how school is just setting you up for working in a white man's world. This was then emphasized when the police showed up to Frederick Douglass Project where a nine and ten year old accidentally shot a pregnant woman. After this happened Deshawn talked about how people are always saying they want to make a change in the projects but never do because of fear. Another example is when a lady had overdosed and the paramedics were too scared to go up and help the girl because they thought that it was a set up. This really opened my eyes to realize that, that happens in our everyday lives. We have the attention span of a goldfish when it comes to those types of things.
  
  Overall I would definitely recommend this book. It is a very realistic and powerful book and will open your eyes to real world problems not everyone things about.
  
  
• 
  Brendan Woytowich

  It was good
• 
  Hser Moo

  IF I GROW UP by Todd Strasser is a realistic fiction Set in New York. This book is about teenagers who live in the hood they were poor no one want to go nearby because is danger is full of gangster. But they only allowed peoples live there if they know them. Kids or teenagers who live in this place call Frederick Douglass project will never have good education or become good person.
  
  DeShawn was the main character lives with his gramma and sister no parent. He the only good kid in Frederick Douglass he has so many friends also he went to school not as many as teacher was except but is fine least he went. This book told by third person. There is lot of character get evolve because of the gang and drug(Larue,Lightbulb,Marcus,Darnell,Laqueta,Jamar,Terrell and more..). Marcus was the leader in Frederick Douglass his has lot of disciples to service him. Gun was fired almost every 30 min. DeShawn knows all the people in Frederick Douglass matter fact he know the gang leader too. There two gangster team Marcus team and other one is DeShawn girlfriend brother team. They don’t like each other they were enemy. But DeShawn don’t want to be enemy with them because he data Tanisha. One day DeShawn and his friend Terrell get in to trouble because they steal something and they are tie up.
  
  Marcus got kill by his own gang member because they don’t like what he doing. He always takes easy never go to war with other gang and his disciples get kill most of time. DeShawn know who kill Marcus he start to tell his friend and disciples some of them believed him some of them don’t. After they found out it was Jamar His kill Marcus because he wants to take over Marcus place and make a war.
  
  Later on they are fight each other and get spread out some of them went to jail and some of them choose new life to live. DeShawn became father his has one child. This book is actually great book they are so many things to learn from. How life be like live in the place that is full of gangster. I recommend to you guys please read this book. It has much interest stuff you can’t believe after you read you will know how is like to be a gang member.
• 
  Lisa

  This story is about a young boy, DeShawn, growing up in the projects in NYC. He has some good influences in his life (such as a grandma that holds the family together) and tries to resist the gang life that surrounds him. Ultimately, though, poverty and lack of perceived choices test that resolve.
  
  I didn't really like the book because it's not the kind of story I normally would read. That said, the characters were interesting. Strasser portrays them as multidimensional - they are not all strictly "bad" or "good". And it was an interesting portrayal of life in the projects and what environments/obstacles these kids have to deal with. Strasser puts some interesting twists into the end of the story. Hopefully readers will take away the message he intended.
  
  I think this book appeals to several subgroups - reluctant readers, urban and/or male readers - that may not relate to your typical middle class, surburban (often female lead) storyline. There is definitely a lot to discuss in this book, making it a good choice for a book club or book report.
  
  
• 
  Grace

  I like to read books that can really happen in real life. The book, "If I Grow Up" looked like a unique book. This book was about a boy, DeShawn, who tried to be a regular person, like us, but didn’t have choices that would lead to a great future (surrounded by gangs and dangerous neighborhood). DeShawn and everyone else have to constantly be scared of dying. DeShawn starts to be like everyone else around him but helps his friend have a life like us. "When you grow up in the projects, there were no choices. No good ones, at least," this quote revealed how DeShawn couldn't stop himself from being like everyone else. To eat and live he had to be part of a gang (it was his only choice). The author, Todd Strasser, wrote the book confusing. I didn’t know that DeShawn and everyone else the author was talking about were black and gangsters until the middle of the book. I think the author could have written it more clearly. I recommend this book to people who like books about regular kids surrounded by a weird, dangerous neighborhood. I loved the ending of the book but also hated it!
• 
  Heidi

  DeShawn lives in the tough, gang-ruled Frederick Douglass projects. His life is chronicled annually from age twelve through seventeen, and finally age twenty-eight. Determined to stay far away from the gang lifestyle so many of his friends are leading, DeShawn becomes involved with a girl from a rival gang's neighborhood. Violence ensues when the relationship is found out. While some of the plot centers on overly-used cliches (African-American boy struggling to do the right thing despite overwhelming obstacles, strong maternal presence, teen girls becoming pregnant), the look at gang life and the tough choices made with respect to gang membership will draw teens in. Some language including references to drugs may be problematic for some libraries. The cover photograph on the paperback version is much more likely to entice readers to open the book, and that version includes the author's name in a font which is similar to graffiti, which goes along with the story line.
• 
  Kyra

  This book is so realistic. It makes me think about my life, and how sheltered I have always been. I feel bad for the people who think that the only way that you can live is in a gang. I wish we could get over the fact that everyones skin is colored differently. Everyone cries racist if a white person gets mad at a black persont, but when it is the other way around they aren't. It is just so confusing to me. But not really about the book, this was a really good book, and it told a good story. I was hoping that with all of the people reaching out to him Deshawn would not get sucked into the world of gangs, killed or sent to jail, and that he would not end up as he did. It shows that even if someone wants to do better than everyone else it is hard to avoid all you know. Hard to get away from what you grew up with.
  
  I would recommend this book to any of my friends, and I will, I hope you find it as...err enlightening as I did.
• 
  Bee

  This book was a short read. I liked that I could learn from this book. The author has sources in the back of the book for books on the problems in the book, which happen in the real world.What are the problems you may ask? Children in bad environments. Children growing up in environments like DeShawn's. An environment were most people you know are poor, doing drugs, or in a gang. Other problems include schooling, drugs, poverty, and the biggest of everything, gangs. I felt that even though a lot of the people DeShawn knew had some of the same problems and same events in their life's, that everyone still had very different personailtys. I did like this book but I was sad by the outcome of DeShawn's life. I always thought it would be Terrell in jail, Tarrell even said it himself. I thought DeShawn would live happy with Tanisha and Simon. Overall, this was an interesting and well written book.
• 
  Michael

  I was hooked instantly on this book. It entertained me the whole way through and opened my eyes to an overlooked problem in the U.S. The whole book covers much of the protagonist, Deshawn's life from when he was around the age of ten to his early twenties. Deshawn was born into an unfortunate situation of gang violence, drugs, and crime. Raised by his grandmother with his older sister, Deshawn grew up in the projects. By growing up in a world filled with poverty, Deshawn felt like he had to provide for his family. The only way he could quickly get money was by joining his local gang. As Deshawn aged he also became higher ranking in his gang and he would eventually become the gang leader. This book concluded with Deshawn being sentenced to prison for a very long time and looking back at his life. I really liked this book as it showed how it is nearly impossible to make it out of those awful neighborhoods, but at the end Deshawn gave a solution to making it it out.