Tough Boy Sonatas

Name: Tough Boy Sonatas
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Curtis Crisler
ISBN: 9781490608129

Author: Curtis Crisler

Narrator: Kevin R. Free

Unabridged: 1 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 12/20/2013

Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Poetry

Synopsis

Wherever your home is, it's probably not as tough as Gary, Indiana. Gary has been called a lot of things. The Armpit of Chicago. The Land of Robbing Hoods. Hell. For the children of Gary, living often boils down to surviving. Maybe these kids get caught up in games of gin rummy. Maybe they spin tops as a way to scratch something fun out of their desperation. Maybe they stand by helplessly as their tenement buildings go up in flames. Or maybe they get held up at gunpoint by somebody who wants more money than he could steal from his church collection box. Award-winning poet Curtis L. Crisler's work gives voice to the children of Gary, shedding some light on their experiences. Kevin R. Free, Dion Graham, and JD Jackson provides a haunting performance of Crisler's bittersweet poems. "Written with skillful manipulation of sound, rhythm, and form, the poems are filled with sophisticated imagery and graphic words ."-Booklist, starred review "These poems are muscular and vivid, fierce with the sound and force of language."-School Library Journal, starred review

Reviews

Goodreads review by Adam

The book Tough Boy Sonatas was a collection of poems that were different from one another but all took place in the same city. For the majority of the poems I could not relate to them. However, they were pretty interesting and taught some meaningful messages. Since the reading format of the book wer......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Title: Tough Boy Sonatas Author: Curtis L. Crisler Illustrator: Floyd Cooper Genre: Poem Theme(s): Poverty, crime, survival, streets Opening line/sentence: Oh city, City of misfortune, City of layoff industry, City with adult children on abandoned playgrounds, Pregnant city with no father, I sleep in you......more

Goodreads review by Keifer

What a beautiful and torturous book! If you read this and don't empathize, your heart doesn't ache, then you were obviously born with a silver spoon in your mouth and a lack of human emotion. I can't get enough of this kind of work: honest, emotional, but intricate and well written. There is nothing......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer

These are 38 gritty poems from the point of view of young adolescent African-American boys growing up in sooty Gary, Indiana...the armpit of Chicago. Yearning for love, justice, safety, sex, and education, these are hard-hitting poems using sound, rhythm, and form to tell the story of angry poverty......more