The darkness--and the goodness--in the lives of the young men of Gary, the armpit-city of Chicago, cries out in this poetry. The Chocolate City. Hell. The Land of Robbing Hoods. Gary, Indiana, has a number of names. It stands as a mother guarding her roach-like inhabitants, their crime, their greed. Has God left this town? Has He left the crumbling church where parishioners pocket donations for hamburgers and candy? Or does He turn the other cheek to pious morality, happy instead to see laughing and card playing and love from His flock on Saturday night? The solitary voice of the city's young men pose these questions in this bittersweet, poetic collection. Both angry poverty and innocent childhood are explored in this YALSA/ALA Best Book for Young Adults by Curtis Crisler with unclothed sincerity.

 

This book was recognised by the Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award.

There are 88 pages in this book. This book was published 2007 by Front Street Inc .

Curtis L. Crisler is a Cave Canem Fellow at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he teaches creative writing. His work has been published in The Fourth River , Black Arts Quarterly , and the book Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami , edited by Judith R. Robinson. Mr. Crisler lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Floyd Cooper is a renowned children's book illustrator whose works include Granpa's Face by Eloise Greenfield, Meet Danitra Brown by Nikki Grimes, and Miz Berlin Walks by Jane Yolen. Mr. Cooper lives with his wife and two sons in Easton, Pennsylvania. Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning poet and author of over two dozen books for young readers. She lives in High Point, North Carolina. Floyd Cooper has illustrated more than sixty books for children and young adults including Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies & Little Mises of Color by Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson and Tough Boy Sonatas by Curtis L. Crisler. He lives in Easton, Pennsylvania.