A review by evamadera1
Homeboyz by Alan Sitomer

2.0

When this book started, and even as it progressed, I harbored a lot of hope for this book. I picked it up because I had given it as an option to my advanced ELA middle school students for their next project and the majority of my class chose this book. I had not read it, however. Some might be put off by the level of highly inappropriate/dirty language throughout the book and many of the "adult" topics. However, those two things are not what caused me to lower my rating of the book. Throughout the book, I analyzed the development of the main character, Teddy, since that is the prompt my seventh graders are using to write their literary analysis essay on the book of their choosing. I kept hoping as I read, that I would see some changes in Teddy that would result in significant growth, in him learning an actual lesson. However, Teddy never seemed to change. He never seemed to learn any lesson. I never understood his motivation for creating the "Type II special services account." That account, although mentioned frequently throughout the book, came in handy for Sitomer at the end of the book which gave it a deus ex machina feel even though the account had been mentioned early on in the book.
Sitomer gives the book a heartwarming ending for most of the characters, an ending that I suppose he hopes will cause the readers to overlook the lack of growth in his main character.

I do not recommend this book at all.