If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
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 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 enough) 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.