Harlem Hustle Contributor(s): McDonald, Janet (Author) |
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ISBN: 0374328552 ISBN-13: 9780374328559 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr) OUR PRICE: $16.19 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2012 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Young Adult Fiction | People & Places - United States - African American - Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes - General (see Also Headings Under Family) - Young Adult Fiction | Performing Arts - General |
Dewey: FIC |
Lexile Measure: 780 |
Physical Information: 0.45" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (0.56 lbs) 192 pages |
Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Topical - Adolescence/Coming of Age - Cultural Region - Mid-Atlantic - Cultural Region - Northeast U.S. - Geographic Orientation - New York |
Accelerated Reader Info |
Quiz #: 110256 Reading Level: 5.1 Interest Level: Upper Grades Point Value: 5.0 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Hustle's personal Harlem was sorely in need of a renaissance. For him, it was the place where a scared kid named Eric Samson had been ditched by druggy parents and dismissed by frustrated teachers. Abandoned to the streets to raise himself, Eric Samson knows life won't be easy, beginning with the choices he must make. The fast cash of the streets still tempts him, but the threat of getting locked up - again - is daunting. Maybe Eric's way out is as Harlem Hustle, the rapper he dreams of being. At his side is Manley Ride Freeman, surrogate brother and best friend. And Jeannette Simpson, the college-bound round-the-way girl he hopes will be more than a friend. But does Eric have the strength to leave the familiar street life behind and the courage to reach for his dream? In her companion to Brother Hood, Janet McDonald once again captures the rhythms of Harlem in this fast, funny story of a restless teenager who uses the power of words to rise above it all. |
Contributor Bio(s): McDonald, Janet: - I was born after midnight during a thunderstorm. The taxi speeding my mother to the hospital broke down on a Brooklyn street, and another had to be hailed. Meanwhile, I tried to kick my way out of the dark, dank crawl space of her stomach, undoubtedly in a prenatal panic. As if that weren't bad enough, once I get here I find that I've been given a humiliatingly weird middle name -- Arneda -- and that I am going to grow up not in the spacious, airy home I dreamed about in the womb but in a small apartment in the projects that I will eventually share with four brothers, two sisters, and two parents. Can we say, Bummed Out at an Early Age?! What do you do when your life is set up to be as rough as possible? You just have to focus on the good parts. Like the fact that your parents are great cooks. And your older brother, the jock, lets you hang out with him and play sports. And your little brother is really cool and your best friend. And reading takes you completely out of your dreary world and into excitement, adventure, and fun. I got out of the projects and into books, which is where I've remained. Wouldn't you? Books took me to college, then to law school, then to journalism school . . . People in my neighborhood started calling me a professional student. And then books took me over completely and I began writing my own. Along the way I worked as a proofreader in a law firm (the only job I ever liked), a paralegal in a law firm (the first job I ever hated), and a lawyer in a law firm (the job that lets me travel the world). I moved from Brooklyn to Seattle and then to Paris, France. My life still occasionally seems like a bad joke, but as a writer I can at least live other people's lives while I wait out the storm of my own. Janet McDonald (1953-2007) is the author of the adult memoir Project Girl. She is the author of three books set in the Brooklyn projects: Chill Wind, for which she received the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; Spellbound, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults; and Twists and Turns, an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in Paris, France. |