Tyrell by Coe Booth

• ISBN: 0-439-83879-7
• Plot summary: Tyrell is living in a motel after his family loses their apartment and the agency is unable to find them a proper shelter to live in. As days go by, Tyrell decides he has to do something about his living situation, even if he is only 15 and shouldn't be the person taking care of his family. While his mom stays in the motel all day, Tyrell devises a plan to host a party with the help of his friends, only these parties are what got his family into trouble in the first place. Tyrell's father has been in and out of jail for the illegal activities that took place at his own parties, but it's a risk Tyrell is willing to take seeing as his living situation can't get any worse and the thing his family really needs is money. Hoping to save enough money for an apartment and keep he and his brother out of the hands of ACS, Tyrell has one week to try to make it all happen.
• Critical evaluation: This was a heartbreaking story about a young man with too much responsibility on his shoulders. He spends his days devising plans to get his family out of the motel and into a stable living situation, making sure his younger brother gets his homework done and to school on time, all while his mother curses him day in and out about how a man's job is to support his family. It was exhausting watching Tyrell jump from hoop to hoop, working to obtain food, swipe his monthly MetroCard in exchange for money, trying to line up all the expensive things he needed to pull off a profitable party in New York City. In the end, Tyrell has to break off from his family to pursue his own needs, but this moment feels more hopeful than one of despair. At last, Tyrell can focus on his own needs, and that is the strong note a reader is left with at the end of the novel.
• Reader's annotation: Tyrell has the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he can't rest until he can provide for his family through whatever needs necessary.
• About the author: Coe Booth is a former writing consultant for the New York Housing Department from the Bronx.
• Genre: Urban fiction
• Curriculum ties, if any: None.
• Booktalking ideas:
  
• Even though his father got in trouble for throwing parties, do you think it is okay that Tyrell threw one?
• Do you think Tyrell will do better on his own?
• Reading level/interest age: 15+
• Challenge issues: Teen sexuality, expletives, minor drug and alcohol use
  
• Why was this item included? Spoken highly of in Voya.