Jean Boreen, Ph.D. (Children's Literature)
Tyrell’s dad is in prison and his mom’s fraud conviction--she took advantage of the welfare system--keeps the family from getting a decent apartment. When Tyrell’s mom tells him that she expects him to take over as the man of the house and take care of her and Tyrell’s younger brother, Troy, Tyrell knows that his options are limited. He also knows that he does not want to deal drugs or do anything illegal that would jeopardize his relationship with his girlfriend, Novisha, a straight-A student who expects a great deal from herself and from Tyrell. When Jasmine, a girl Tyrell’s age who has been deserted by her older sister, looks to Tyrell for friendship (and maybe something else), he finds his life becoming complicated almost beyond his control. Determined to make money, he organized a “party” where he will be the DJ and charge people overhead--and then let various acquaintances come in and sell drinks, food, and, possibly drugs. But can Tyrell actually pull the party off and keep himself out of jail? And to what cost to his relationships with Novisha, Jasmine, and his family? A strong novel about a young man who knows that he does not want to follow in his parents’ disastrous footsteps. 2006, Push/Scholastic, $16.99. Ages 12 to 16.

Ashleigh Dennis (Children's Literature)
Tyrell, a fifteen-year-old high school dropout from the Bronx, is angry, bitter, broke, and frustrated. His father is in jail for the third time and because of his irresponsible mother, Tyrell’s family (his mother and little brother) have been evicted from their apartment and forced into the shelter system. Things hit rock bottom as the shelter system transfers Tyrell’s family to Bennett, a roach-infested motel with deplorable sanitary conditions. Frustrated with his family’s financial situation, Tyrell views his girlfriend Novisha as the light in the dark tunnel of his life. However, adding to Tyrell’s frustration, Novisha starts to express mixed feelings about him and their relationship. Fighting the pressure from his mother to sell drugs, and the sexual pressure not to betray his girlfriend, Tyrell lives in a world of conflict. Apart from Novisha and the occasional marijuana and alcohol usage, Tyrell discovers another outlet in Jasmine, an attractive, homeless teenager in whom Tyrell finds comfort because of their similar situations. Readers journey in depth into the life of a sexually, financially, emotionally, and educationally frustrated, inner-city teenager as he uses his limited resources to throw a dance party serving alcohol for teenagers to get his family out of the system (the same act that put his father in jail). Author Coe Booth describes Tyrell’s experience as an inner-city teenager in extreme detail but at the expense of the book’s literary quality. In forty-two chapters, the author attempts in too many words to capture every aspect of Tyrell’s “inner-city” situation, making Tyrell seem unrealistic. 2006, PUSH/Scholastic Inc., $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.

CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, 2007)
Homeless teen Tyrell uses his limited options to keep his family together after they are evicted from their apartment in the Bronx. The African American teen’s father is in prison, while his mother makes questionable choices, such as keeping Ty’s younger brother, Troy, in special education in order to receive more government money. Ty’s girlfriend, Novisha, goes to a private Catholic school, and seems to have the kind of life to which Ty can only aspire. Their relationship gives Ty hope, but when he meets a Puerto Rican girl in a temporary shelter who is also trying to hold things together, he feels himself drawn to her. Balancing his love interests is secondary, however, to earning enough money to get his family back in a proper home. Ty admirably rejects the quick fix of the drug culture as a source of income. Instead, he turns to his DJ skills, borrowing his dad’s equipment and breaking into an empty building to throw a party. In this first novel, Coe Booth creates a detailed setting and characters that are wholly believable, their raw, authentic language and dialogue coming straight from the streets. The Bronx itself is a distinct character—as tough and relentless and determined as Ty. CCBC Category: Fiction for Young Adults. 2006, Push / Scholastic, 310 pages, $16.99. Age 14 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 17))
After his DJ father is incarcerated for drug dealing, 15-year-old Tyrell, his brother and his mother are rendered homeless and move to a slummy city shelter in the Bronx. His mom's ineffectual attempts at keeping the family afloat financially and emotionally soon fall flat, and Tyrell is forced to take the family's situation into his own hands. Inspired by his father, he decides to throw a secret dance party in an abandoned bus garage with a steep admission charge guaranteed to boost his family's income. Booth, a writing consultant for the NYC Housing Authority, clearly understands how teens living on the edge-in shelters, in projects, on the street-live, talk and survive. It's the slick street language of these tough but lovable characters and her gritty landscapes that will capture the interests of urban fiction fans. While the complex party-planning plotline doesn't exactly cut a straight path, its convoluted-ness undoubtedly illustrates the kinds of obstacles these teens must overcome and the connections they need to make in order to survive-inside or outside the law. 2006, PUSH/Scholastic, 320p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paula Rohrlick (KLIATT Review, January 2007 (Vol. 41, No. 1))
Tyrell lives in a homeless shelter in the Bronx with his mother and his younger brother. His father is in jail, and 15-year-old Tyrell knows he doesn’t want to end up there himself, but dangerous temptations abound. His girlfriend Novisha expects a lot from him, and a new girl he meets, Jasmine, wants more than just friendship. Meanwhile, Tyrell just wants to make enough money to get his family into an apartment, and so he comes up with a plan to hold a secret dance party and charge admission, with Tyrell as the D.J. Booth, a Bronx teacher and social worker, clearly knows the world of her inner-city characters; the novel feels absolutely real. The language reflects that (e.g., “that nigga can talk some mad shit when he get started”), and sex, drugs, and violence are here, too. Inner-city teens and those curious about that world will find it memorably depicted here. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: S--Recommended for senior high school students. 2006, Scholastic, Push, 320p., $16.99. Ages 15 to 18.

Elisabeth Tully (Library Media Connection, March 2007)
Told in a plausibly authentic first-person narrative voice, Tyrell is the story of the inner life and external challenges of an African-American teenager currently living in a roach-infested homeless shelter with his ineffectual mother and seven-year-old brother. Life was better for Tyrell before his father was sent to jail again and his mother retreated into drug-addled dependence on her 15-year-old son. Tyrell's unstable living situation has caused him to drop out of school, but he makes sure that his younger brother gets his homework done, has breakfast, and shows up on time. Tyrell supports his family through petty larceny, but resists his mother's hints that he should deal drugs. Tyrell is a good kid whose behavior is entirely understandable even though the reader will cringe at some of the choices he makes. Tyrell's dream is to make enough money to get his family out of the shelter and into their own apartment, and he accomplishes his objective only to learn that it is not within his power to keep his family together. The explicit street language and casual sexual encounters in the book make it unsuitable for most middle school libraries, but it is an excellent choice for high school collections. Highly Recommended. 2006, PUSH Books (Scholastic, Inc.), 320pp., $16.99 hc. Ages 14 to 18.

Judy Beemer (The ALAN Review, Fall 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 1))
Ty r ell’s world is not easy to hear about. A homeless African-American teen in the Bronx, Tyrell’s goal is to hold his family together and move his spaced-out mother and seven-year-old brother “home” to the projects. Available money-making ventures, though, also involve brushes with the law, and Tyrell doesn’t want to end up in jail like his father: “I don’t wanna be the kinda man my pops turned out to be. . . .Nah. I’ma hafta do better than him.” Readers listen to Tyrell for just one week, but that is enough to recognize the frustration of his world. “I really wanna put my fist through the wall. . . . I gotta do something. I wanna go somewhere, but I don’t got nowhere to go.” Born in the Bronx, author Coe Booth continues to live there, and this first novel takes mature readers there, too. Category: Inner-city Teen Struggles. YA--Young Adult. 2006, Push (Scholastic), 310 pp., $16.99. Ages young adult.Junction City, KS

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
Fifteen-year-old Tyrell has a lot on his plate: his father is in jail and his family is parked in a sordid motel. Booth grounds her story in Tyrell's tough-talking but vulnerable voice. Despite the grim setting evoked by the sensory prose, this isn't a story of violence and drugs; rather, it concerns the more intimate deprivations (and moments of connection) of living poor. Category: Older Fiction. 2006, Scholastic/Push, 311pp, 16.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 1: Outstanding, noteworthy in style, content, and/or illustration.

Matthew Weaver (VOYA, February 2007 (Vol. 29, No. 6))
Tyrell Green inherits the literary turf previously walked upon by Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield-adolescence as seen through the eyes of a young male. But Tom and Holden would not last a day in Tyrell's tough, inner-city world. Forced to relocate with a mentally challenged younger brother and his maternally challenged mother, or "my moms" as he refers to her, to a roach-infested shelter, he struggles between his love for virginal Novisha and his sexual attraction for sultry Jasmine. All the while, he makes his way through a world rife with gangs, drugs, and little prospect for a future of any kind, save for the money he might rake in by throwing a huge party in an empty building. Mastery of Tyrell's voice and dialect is the book's greatest accomplishment. Readers are fully immersed in his world, a transition so seamless that the reader never notices before he or she is surrounded. In a lesser author's hands, Tyrell's speech patterns would be distracting, but with Booth it is a natural fit. This tiny epic is a glimpse at a place many readers will never visit, and others will never leave. Everything is captured and held up to the light, not for judgment but to show readers that life like Tyrell's actually happens. Booth's undertaking is a monumental one, and let the record show that she provides the definitive tale of the modern African American urban youth. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Push/Scholastic, 311p., $16.99. Ages 15 to 18.