This is a re-release of Rikers. Volponi is a talented writer and in Rikers, he’s covering a topic he knows all too well and this is evidenced in the emotion this book evokes. Yet I have to say I didn’t like this book. I didn’t like that it reads like a jail manual and I don’t like that too many young men will ‘appropriate’ this book from the school library and use it as a bible on how to survive in the streets. This is the story of a young man who is wrongly accused of a crime, spends too much time in prison because the system… oh! the system! He’s a victim as are the boys he’s locked up with and, as Volponi points out, too many are Black and Latino.
Reviewer’s Comment: Unfortunately, the characters in the book are victims, caught up in a story where they really aren’t needed. Situations drive the plot and the characters never develop. But, boys will read it. (I bought this one. I like Volponi’s books!)
Recommended by Edi Campbell, Lbrarian, Indiana, USA
Visit her blog: https://campbele.wordpress.com
