This Way Home by Wes Moore with Shawn Goodman

Basketball is his life.  But life changes...

Delacorte Press sent me a copy of this book for review (thank you).  It has been published so you can find a copy at your local bookstore now.

This is a hard book to read.  It's about three boys who have been friends since they started school.  They live in a so-so neighborhood but there's not much trouble on their street.  Then they find a boy dead on the sidewalk.  He was an A student, had no enemies, and it's decided it was a gang killing.  No one knows why.

As the tension grows, Michael comes home with fancy new tennis shoes the boys can wear to the play off tournament.  He won't tell them where they came from, just they are theirs with no cost.  Everything has a cost...

Then they get new jerseys.  Those have a little logo on them that marks them as part of a street gang.  They are so poor and have done without for so long, they set aside their smarts and go with the emotion of getting new jerseys.  And just like that, they've set themselves up as part of the gang they don't want to belong to.

There's another death, a confession that Elijah doesn't want to hear and he almost dies, too, before the story ends.  It's a good thing he had another friend that was mentoring him and helping him learn some things before he had to use them.

This is a good look at how insidious gang members can be to get you where you can't back out.  It's a hard look at life and consequences of your own actions.  It's dangerous out there; be careful.