Durango Street

One day last school year, I placed a copy of this book into one of my reluctant reader's hands. He usually read books I suggested for all of 10 minutes before abandoning them. He so thoroughly enjoyed this book that he handed me $6 right in class one day so that I could order him his own copy to take home for the summer! Success! This is a book I would highly recommend teachers from Junior High through High School have in their libraries and classroom libraries.

This book is really good. At first it seems really boring and kind of a gangster book, but later on its really interesting. You see the character's personality change. You also find out how life is very hard in the gangster world because you have no where that is safe. The main character Rufus Henry, is the source that changes the group called Moors. It is an exicting novel that shows the rivalry between the different rival groups. (Moors, Gassers, Bloods etc.) If you pick up the book and it seems boring in the beginning, i advise you to continue reading it. The book in the middle is totally awesome. Don't let this oppurtunity to read a good book slip by. Frank Bonham is an excellent author. READ THIS BOOK! Jennifer Wong

I thought this was a great book. I give it five stars because it was exciting the whole time. It was a realistic book about gang life. Rufus Henry was sent to a correctional camp for boys when he was caught stealing cars and acting in gang violence. He gets out of jail and comes back to his new home on Durango Street. It is a ghetto neighborhood known as the Flats. The first day, he it harassed by a gang called the Gassers. Even though his parole officer tells him not to, he joins up with a gang called the Moors for protection. You get beat into the gang and you get beat out. Bantu, the leader, gets on Rufus' nerves so he challenges him to a fight. Rufus wins and becomes the new leader. Alex Robbins, a community worker, tries to get the rival gangs to stop fighting. Regardless of what he says, there are many feuds between the Gassers and the Moors. Rufus does not want to fight, but he cannot back out or everyone will mess with him. The Moors throw a dance party at the end of the story. You will need to read the book to find out what happens. I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes to read.

Durango Street is a story about about a boy named Rufus facing gang and life struggles. Rufus Henry is a boy with a lot of potential, but he has gotten himself into the wrong place with the wrong people. The book starts out with Rufus in work camp after being charged with grand theft auto. But when he is released from camp, there is only one place for him to go, back to Durango Street. Immediately after Rufus arrives at his home he runs into trouble with the gang called the Gassers. Before long the Gassers are after him and Rufus finds he has no chioce but to join the gang the Moors. With the Moors behind him, Rufus is staying alive and safe for a while. But when the Gassers catch up with the Moors, trouble and "war" breaks out. Rufus learns that this lifestyle is not the way to live his life, and does his best to end the "war". He faces many life and death situations, but he always seems to come out clean. Rufus learned a lot from this experience and eventually understands that his life is not a dead end, but a life with a great future. THIS BOOK is AWESOME!

I found this book to be a very fast read. I read it all in one night. The author is pure genious! I mean, he depicted the gang life soo incredibly well in this novel.