The Heart of the Matter

The time has come my lovely readers for us to part. This was a class project and indeed it was fun but this will be my last posting.

So what have we learned?
-There are many differences between street novels.
-No matter what the critics say there are plenty of street novels that are appropriate for teenage reading.
-Covers that contain graphic material most likely contains graphic material.

What was the whole point of this? I chose this topic because it is really close to me. It is in my house and in my family. The women in my family enjoy these books and they used to call me a prude because I always asked them why waste their time reading that junk when in secrecy my hypocrisy led me to reading them secretly and actually enjoying many of them but never admitting it to myself or my family and friends. The entire purpose of my blog was to pick different street novels out that will be appropriate for teen reading while opening the eyes of people and showing them that there is a little bit of good in everything. Before I started this whole project 3 months ago, I can say that I was close minded about street fiction. I discarded the whole genre because I felt since it was not like the Great Gatsby or Native Son or My Sister's Keeper that it was not good enough for me to really pay attention to and analyze. But when I really began to break it down and actually pay attention to everything below the surface like the meaning of the book and the impact it can have on someone, I was like, "Damn this some good stuff".

Even if you cannot personally relate to something or it may not touch you as some other books might...do not just disregard the whole thing in general because you will be surprised on what you may miss out on.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading my blog and Happy Holidays.

Peace, love and Sooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllllll

^^^^^^^^^^^lol i had to do it.

Bluford Series

I don't know if anybody have ever heard of this series but I just found out about them when I found them laying around my house. My 16 year old sister like my mom and older sister are big fans of street novels. But this book called out to me not only because it was small in size and pocket sized but also because of the cover. The covers resemble street novels in a way but something seemed different about it. So I decided to read it. I finished in a day. Bluford Series are novels written for intermediate and advanced high school readers. These novels features issues that occur in urban neighborhoods such as drugs, abandonment, and teen sex but it is not as explicitly told as done in street fiction.

Books by Walter Dean Myers, The Bluford Series by Paul Langan and The Hotlanta Series by Denene Millner are novels that are written by African American for young black teens going through the same issues. These are all written and published professionally so you can bet that you will not find any grammatical errors in these novels.

VERDICT: NOT ONLY ARE THESE BOOKS APPROPRIATE FOR TEENAGE READING BUT I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT ALMOST EVERY TEEN CAN FIND A BOOK THAT THEY CAN RELATE TO PERSONALLY.

Yes please. Sell me sex

WARNING THE IMAGES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE ARE RATED R

JUST KIDDING PLEASE IF THESE BOOKS ARE ON BOOKSHELVES AND TABLES IN HARLEM THEN ANYONE CAN SEE THEM



That quote sex sells, oh boy does it. Not only in porn but in novels too now. What do you think when you see those book covers? I think erotica, literary porn, sex, strippers and a whole lot of other stuff not appropriate for posting...anywhere...ever.

Books with covers like these features mainly...guess? Duh sex! And many of these sex passages are really explicit that it can make any adult wowman blush.

These books are what parents are protesting and don't want their kids reading, but at the same time, I don't think other street fiction books that can actually teach students some valuable lessons should be discarded as well.

SO TEACHERS IF YOU SEE COVERS LIKE THAT ONES YOU JUST SAW...DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT BUY THEM FOR YOUR STUDENTS TO READ. NO MATTER HOW INTRIGUING THE BACK OF THE BOOK MAY SOUND.

VERDICT: NO WAY IN HELL WOULD THESE BOOKS EVER BECOME APPROPRIATE FOR TEEN READING.

Boy do I love me some Omar Tyree

Omar oh Omar. Omar Tyree is one of my most favorite authors. See what I did there. I said "my most favorite authors" and not "my most favorite black authors". I love Tyree because he speaks the truth in his books and also about reading in African Americans and how sadly most of them won't read novels that is not as gritty or rough and hardcore as street novels. Omar Tyree does not write street novels, he write "urban classics"



Check the video. Tyree speaks on reading in African Americans and his upcoming movie on based on his book Leslie.



My favorite book from Tyree is Flyy Girl. I read it when I was 11 years old. I remember sharing it with my friends at the time. It is about a beautiful and sexy young girl named Tracy who plays with people and manipulates them and uses her beauty and figure to get whatever she wants. She matures early and sleeps with men older than her who sell drugs. After seeing her mom become addicted to drugs and starts to prostitute, Tracy realizes that she must change for the better so she won't end up like her mother. What I like about this book is that when Tracy realized how her life would turn out if she continued to lived the way that she did, she changed for the better and that shows real courage and strength, the kind that her mother lacked.

Tyree once said in his blog that he will not continue to write about the same drug-dealing, sex drived, gold-digging centered novels that the African American community has become addicted to reading and you go Tyree I would not write about that stuff either and if I did believe me my books would get five stars because yes it will possess the elements of street fiction but I can guarantee that is not all you will find and all the storylines would not be the same. No sir.

VERDICT: READ READ READ IT...YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO...SHOULD BE IN EVERY URBAN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASS.

Can you say G-H-E-T-T-O?

The summary you are about to see is courtesy of Amazon.com
"Ghetto Girls" has been called "the sexiest hip-hop story ever!". A fast-moving joint with a raw, gritty edge, and full of brutal honesty, "Ghetto Girls" takes it in rugged stride to the streets. While hanging with friends, a beautiful girl is abducted by thugs. Her uncle, a top music producer, does not cooperate with the police. He orders a hit on the alleged perpetrator. This act sets off another trail of killings, leading right to his doorstep. This is a tale of murder, jealousy and revenge going down in a ghetto near you. The streets belong to thugs...but are they real, or just staged by the authorities? "Ghetto Girls" examines teen life on the streets and teaches a lesson you're never too old to learn or appreciate. You live by the sword. . .you die by the sword!"

I don't know about you guys but that sounds pretty damn interesting to me.
The comments you are about to read are also courtesy of Amazon.com
"I dont know what I was thinking when I purchased this book. I usually read the reviews before purchasing, but this one slipped by me. I have yet to get past Chapter 2. It's just not grabbing my attention. I even flipped to the back and the story just does not grab me. The title for this book in my opinion is not fit. Most of us who have read Around the Way Girls, Project Chick, or any other urban book, are fooled by this title, thinking this book is in the same category as them. NOT! Save your money ladies!"

"please somebody tell me who wrote the editorial for his book. this was the worst book i have ever read in my life!!!!!!!!!!!! stupid story and stupid characters!!!!!!!! this writer should crawl under a rock and never come out again!!!!!!!!!!!! i want my money back!!!!!!!!!!!!"<---this is my personal favorite :-D.

The Ghetto Girls series four books all talking about young women doing what they need to do to survive in the hood. Some of them sell drugs or themselves. I read Ghetto Girls and Ghetto Girls Too and honestly I have no idea how I got through both of those books. I must have been extremely bored.

I live in one of the roughest and drug infested neighborhoods in the Bronx but I don't and would never sell drugs or my body<--hell no, to get what I need. In these books a lot of these girls have it really bad though. Their moms are on drugs and their dads are usually on drugs, in jail, selling drugs or molesting them. I know that everyone under different circumstances must make sacrifices to get by and I understood that with the first book. While reading, I actually said "ok I understand" and "aww I feel sorry for her" but come on now. It seems like now that that is all they resort to is a life of crime. Like they can have the biggest dreams in the world but "put them on the back-burner to do this for awhile until I get my shit together to do what I really want to do". If only they knew that won't happen because while they are selling drugs and putting their dreams on the back-burner they are actually seeing them slip further and further and further away. Would you want you sisters, daughters, friends, neices watching this? Not me. I want to read books about young girls who may have it hard at home but is succeeding and doing well in school on their way to college not in the street on their way to prison.

VERDICT: UHHHHH I DON'T THINK SO...FIND ANOTHER BOOK.

Push to Precious

I don't know if any of you reading this have seen Precious but if you have not, you should. Great movie that does the book's justice.

For those of you who have not even heard of the book Push now a movie named Precious...you must be living under a rock. But I am going to tell you about it anyway.

Push is about a young girl named Clarice Precious Jones who has been abused, mistreated and raped countless time by the two people in the world who are suppose to love and appreciate her: her parents. At sixteen and pregnant with her second child by her father, Precious is kicked out of her middle school and is enrolled in an alternative high school where she is taught to read and write in order to pass her GED exam. In her class she gets the support, love, and encouragement from her classmates and teacher that gives her the courage to leave her abusive home with her children and abandon her mother forever.

After everything I have told you about street literature and the examples that I have given and the brief summary I just gave you about Push, do you think this is a street novel? With all that I know about street novels I am on the fence about this book because it is not similar to all the street novels I have read. In the street novels I have read women who were victims of rape and abuse used the sensuality to get what they wanted and in most cases had their plans backfire on them. Young men turned drug-dealers would start off wanting to make some extra money would later let the money make them. A crime would take place in the beginning and the story trails the protagonist as they go about coping with what has happened. One key thing that I have noticed in street fiction, the characters may have dreams but instead of striving towards them, they settle for less.

In Push do you think that it is a street novel just because it is set in an urban setting and it consists of issues such as poverty, rape, teen mother which are some elements of street fiction or is it a drama set in an urban neighborhood with issues that plagues us all not just African Americans in urban areas? Maybe so maybe not.

I am going to leave you guys with a question. You ready?<-- That wasn't it. Do you think there is a line that a novel like Push must cross to be considered a street novel such as Pain Freak?

VERDICT: DEFINITELY A BOOK WORTH READING AND APPROPRIATE FOR READING IN CLASSES

Zane oh Zane

I remember reading my first Zane book. I was 12 and may I say wow. Just wow. How I got my hands on a Zane book is nobody's business but it was quite the page turner. For all of those of you who read a Zane novel then you know exactly why I say that any Zane novel is a page turner.

Zane is one of the leading novelists in urban erotica. From the Sex Chronicles to Love is Never painless, Zane's novels are known for the raunchy and very explicit sex scenes. Now I wonder you are wondering "where does a twelve year old get a Zane novel from?" Well where does any twelve year old get a Zane novel from? The women in her family who would bury their heads in the latest Zane novel then abandon it for a curious pre-teen to get their hands on ;).

The first Zane book I read was The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth. And from the title you can tell what the book is about. It is a stories divided into three categories: Wild, Wilder, and Off Da Damn Hook. More and more into the book the stories become wilder and wilder. Now at twelve years old, I understood the basics of what was going on but I didn't really understand what was going on if you know what I mean.

Zane is one of the leading authors in urban fiction but reading a Zane book in a classroom full of high school students in urban high schools is a bad bad idea. For one teens are already having sex and after reading a book like Nervous, Skyscraper, or Sisters of the APF (all Zane novels) may encourage many of them in engaging in sexual activities. Plus I doubt any Board of Education whether in NY or otherwise would deem this book appropriate for reading, in a class setting of course *hint hint*.

VERDICT: I DEEM THIS BOOK INAPPROPRIATE FOR HIGH SCHOOL READING.

Let's talk about sex

I remember watching Definitely, Maybe with Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin, and in the beginning of the movie there was a big uproar with the parents about sex education. They felt that their kids should not be taught sex ed. at the age of 12.


Are you serious? Girls are having babies at 12 years old. It is sad but it's true. I believe tweens in middle school, up to high school should have sex education because despite parent's ignorance teens are having sex younger and younger every day. The earlier they are informed about sex and the responsibilities that comes along with it, the higher the chance of lessening teen pregnancy and STDs.


In many street fiction novels, sex is no stranger. In some street books, there are more explicit details than in other novels. With this whole idea of incorporating street novels this is one of the main issues concerning parents. Majority of them do not want their children reading street novels because of the sexual content. So what I am going to do is suggest some good street books that consists all the elements of street novels without so much sex.


Book 1 Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinonez. {FUN FACT: QUINONEZ ACTUALLY ATTENDED THE CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK} I actually read this book in my English class in the ninth grade. It is set in the El Barrio also known as Spanish Harlem. Julio a student at Hunter College and lives with his wife Blanca. After finding out that Blanca is pregnant, Julio turns to Sapo (his drug-dealing best friend) for an in with Bodega, the biggest hustler in all of Harlem. Bodega tries to gain ownership of a tenant building in El Barrio to invest all his dirty money into something close to him. Bodega is a genuine honest man with a good heart. He gives Julio a job not only because Julio is smart also because Bodega wants to get close to Veronica, Blanca's aunt to win her over again. After fighting with her current husband, Veronica accidentally shoots and kills him and then plays the damsel in distress card for Bodega to come and rescue her.


Sounds familiar? Bodega Dreams is an urban Great Gatsby. Similar storyline, similar situations. Instead of reading The Great Gatsby as we all probably have done in high school, Bodega Dreams an urban alternative. It portrays themes of trust, loyalty, love, friendship, marital bonds, and sacrifice while at the same time showing how even the most unlikely of people (an honor student at Hunter College) under certain circumstances can be drawn to selling drugs.

VERDICT: APPROPRIATE FOR READING AND VERY ENTERTAINING CHECK IT OUT.

From that to this

The songs you are listening to, one is from one of the greatest rappers of all time Big Daddy Kane an the other from one hip-hop's jokes Soulja Boy. I am sorry but anybody who thinks Soulja is a talented rapper is seriously delusional. How does these songs relate to street lit?

"This new form of "street lit" began to remind me of a similar destruction of hip-hop, where the same ghettocentric stories began to take precedence over the creative perspectives and multi-faceted voices and subjects of our urban music. All of a sudden, you could not succeed as a rapper unless you had sold drugs, committed violent crimes, and claimed to be an unruly gangster, who had done hard time in prison. You couldn't rap about the normal joys of life anymore. These new kids on the block rejected how Ice Cube had had a good day, while preferring to hear how dark in hell it was for DMX."- Omar Tyree



Tyree said it best. Where oh where has hip hop gone?



In his article Tyree argues that the street fiction novels that are coming out now resembles the death of true hip hop. Tyree realizes that he is not as popular with his urban youth audience because of his wanting to stray from topics dealing with gold-diggers, prostitutes, and drug dealing gangsters to something new and different. Tyree says, "The fact is, when I began to write about good black men with A Do Right Man in 1997, the importance of black family with Single Mom in 1998, the reality of black-on-black love with Sweet St. Louis in 1999, the indulgences of superstars with Just Say No! in 2001, the ugly face of New Orleans poverty with Leslie in 2002, or the challenge of positive feminine power with Boss Lady in 2005, few readers bothered to listen to me." Tyree foresees that street fiction would soon be obscure if they continue to write about the about unprogressive African-American men and women. He concludes by saying that publishing is a business and to sell books you must write about what people want to hear about and that is sadly the more gritty and abrasive books. "Either the product makes money like "street lit" and sex novels do, or it fades into obscurity like a VHS video tape machine. But if the only way I can earn a living now in African-American adult fiction is to sell my people the same poison that they've become addicted to, then I quit with my artistic integrity still in tact, while moving on to a more progressive mission," says Tyree.



It's like everything in media these days needs to contain sex and violence to sell. That's all people want to see. Right now, I am reading "Pain Freak" by Gregory Garrett, a street fiction novel, and the after the first two chapters of the book, I already dislike the book. It is about a young woman who was raped as a child by her cousin and then becomes addicted to sex. She then meets a man who is not only a drug-dealer but also abusive. She has his baby at 15 and after ratting him out for abusing her and sending him to prison, when he comes out, she goes back for seconds. The protagonist in this book only cares about making money, having sex, and choosing all the wrong men. She makes women look bad. And the way she speaks in the book is appalling. Point is that Tyree is right. How are we suppose to progress and move forward as people if we continue to read these books that denigrate who we are? Some people say that street fiction novels contribute to the stereotypes imposed on African-Americans and books like "Pain Freak" do by creating this "heroine" whose only care in the world is having good sex and making that paper. I appreciate his honesty and bluntness and I wish him luck in his career.



Teachers want to read street lit books in their classrooms to get closer to their students and give them a book that can relate to them, this is a prime example of the WRONG BOOK TO CHOOSE. I repeat the WRONG BOOK. Its a WRONG BOOK for any young women of color to read. For one it is poorly written and it would make you feel ashamed to be a young black women.

VERDICT: I DEEM PAIN FREAK NOT ONLY DEGRADING AND POORLY WRITTEN BUT INAPPROPRIATE NEVER THE LESS



Road to the Death of Hip Hop Take 1

Songs Ain't no half steppin-Big Daddy Kane

Turn my swagg on-Soulja boy

Should they or shouldn't they?

Before we start, for all of you thinking "what is street lit" I am going to tell you. Street literature are novels whose themes, plot, setting surround urban life. The books you see being sold down 125th Street in Harlem, those are all considered street literature. I have been doing a lot of research on street fiction and there has been some thought as to whether or not street fiction novels should be incorporated in English classes. Now if any of you have actually read a street novel then you would know the kind of things that goes on in those novels. In some of them there is explicit sex and violence but some of them are tamer and can offer some life lessons to young teens living in urban communities. So my purpose for this blog is to explore the pros and cons of street lit being incorporated into classrooms. I personally think that they can actually do a lot of good by opening up the minds of teenagers who live in urban neighborboods and also by swaying them away from the "fast life is the easiest life" type of mentality. I definitely know a lot of boys and girls my age that definitely could of benefitted from reading street novels. So stay tuned...this is Cristy on Street lit.<---lol i had to say dat