Module 3- June 20-26 Miracle Boy's by Jacqueline Woodson

                         The Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson



Summary:
Twelve-year-old Lafayette's  had a close relationship with his older brother Charlie. His relationship changes after Charlie is released from a detention home. Charlie blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.  Lafayette has a hard time trying to figure out why his brother is so angry at him and why he changed so much.


Read it Again?
No, I had a hard time keeping interest in the book and would not recommend it to others.



Library Use:
I would not recommend this book to students in the library. 


Reviews:
Kirkus Review 1/15/2000
Another tale of the inner city that focuses on the real struggles of those live there, from Woodson (Lena, 1999, etc.). The Bailey boys are on their own: their father died from hypothermia after rescuing a woman and her dog from a frigid lake in Central Park, and their mother, Milagro, or Miracle, followed him in death when she could not afford the insulin she needed. Ty'ree, the oldest, has given up his dreams of college and a career in science and works full time in a publishing company mailroom so that he can feed and house himself and his brothers. Charlie, who was in a juvenile detention facility for armed robbery when his mother died and cannot ever forget it, is now home, but he is full of hatred and anger at the whole world, no longer the boy who once cried at the sight of a sick or injured animal. He directs some of his hatred at the youngest boy, Lafayette; between that and the devastation his mother's death, Lafayette finds that his world is in chaos. Readers will be caught up in this searing and gritty story of their struggle; Woodson composes a plot without easy answers, and creates characters for whom predictable behavior is all but impossible. A decent, involving novel about a family struggling to remain intact in spite of tremendous obstacles. (Fiction. 10-13)

Horn Book Guide 9/1/2000

This compelling novel about three African-American brothers is oddly reminiscent of S. E. Hinton's early novels, with its streetwise, self-sufficient orphans. Although there is little action in a story that is told almost entirely through dialogue and thirteen-year-old Lafayette's thoughts and memories, the narrator's voice maintains a tone of sweet melancholy that is likely to hold the attention of thoughtful young teens.



References:
www.mackin.com


Bibliography:

Woodson, J. (2000)  The Miracle Boys.  New York: New York. Putnam Publishing.