Stephanie S. (skywriter319) - , reviewed on 1/31/2011 + 784 more book reviews

So Rosen writes the way he parents: often too caught up in the emotional "rightness" of the moment to consider basic principles, or the long-term implications of his immediate decisions. The STORY is there, obviously; what could make for a more tear-inducing premise than the tale of 5 inner-city black and Latino boys whose lives are changed by, and who change the lives of, a wealthy white New York couple? It's quite sad, then, that the writing doesn't do the reality justice. I have heard Michael Rosen speak and he is very eloquent, very forthcoming with his shortcomings and mistakes as a sort of adoptive parent to the boys.

That being said, I return to the fact of the matter that the book is just not that well written. It didn't move me to tears, though I thought it should've, and was expecting it to. Scenes play out in a jerky manner; dialogue spills all over the place, confusingly and seemingly purposelessly other than being a vague attempt to grasp the boys' vernacular; and admittedly sometimes everyone behaves in abominable ways. I note this here not to criticize their mistakes and poor decisions, for, fiction or nonfiction, it is not the reader's right to question the decisions of the "characters." Poorly written, however, a character may not garner my sympathy, and then I really am just annoyed at the whole lot of them, which happened a lot when I was reading this book.

All in all, this book had good intentions but did not carry them out in the best way it could have. This is one of the rare cases where I'd recommend keeping very adamantly in mind the fact that this is based on a true story. Thinking of the characters, especially the boys, as real people makes the clumsy translation from life to paper more forgivable.

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