Voices From the Street, by S. Beth Atkins, is an informative and educational book that tells the story of young former gang members. I appreciate that Atkins attempts to tell these youngster’s stories in their own voices. I love that Atkins includes a glossary of terms at the back of this book. I found it very useful as I was reading the book, and I feel that she did a great job knowing which terms would be foreign to a young reader. I also liked the photographs and samples of writing that she collected from some of the kids. I was surprised by the wisdom that came from some of these kids.

I think that this book could be invaluable in middle to high-school classrooms for many reasons. The author truly gives voice to these young people who got caught up in gang life. The different reasons that these kids found gangs so appealing are truly heartbreaking, but break down into wanting to fill the same basic needs --acceptance, family, belonging, a way out of poverty. Indeed, gangs seem to be so prevalent today not because of the human desires that deal with wanting to hurt and be violent, do damage; but the desire to fit in, feel loved and be a part of something. Before reading this book, I have to admit that when I thought of gang-bangers nothing endearing came to my mind. I thought of trouble, of violence and drugs and everything wrong with society. After reading this book, and hearing these kids’ stories in their own voices, I see that they are mostly kids who have been given a raw deal in life, and made choices that any of us could have made had we been in their shoes. The book doesn’t sugar coat or gloss over the fact that some of these people did some awful things, nor does it go into the gory details of their experiences. Atkins explains things honestly and without embellishment, and I feel that the kids that she interviewed share the same tone. Atkins opened my eyes to the fact that gangs, like so many other things, are a symptom of a flawed society. Atkins points out that children who are most at risk for being involved in a gang suffer from poverty, abuse of some kind, and lack of family support. Doesn’t that always seem to be the case? A piece of wisdom that I got out of this book is that human beings are alike at some basic level, and there is hope that people can change.

This book would be useful to me in my current situation as an English tutor. So many of the students that I work with fall into many, if not all of these categories, and I know that they are at a greater risk for the unhealthy behaviors that are discussed in this book. It could be useful to students of all walks of life, even those who are not at risk of falling into the dangerous behaviors that are talked about in this book, because this book brings up important social and human-rights issues that could really get them thinking. Being that it was published in 1996, some of the information and terms might be outdated. However, the personal stories of these young people can still be extremely beneficial to an adolescent audience, and there are many things about gang-life in the current day that have remained the same. ( )