Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The first thing we want to warn Christian parents about is a strange one. Isaiah flashes back to a memory where he is young and dancing with his mom, but he has on mom’s high heels. Dad shows up and makes a comment about him being their son, not daughter. With our current culture, the Christian reader’s alarm bells of course start going off here. The next thing we know Isaiah asks his mom “You think it’d be weird if I tried (nail) polish?” to which his mom pauses and then says, “No, not at all”. He then sadly puts on purple nail polish and says, “I go to my closet and stand before the Rock Gawds (a poster of rock artists, see below) with my Midnight-Purple painted toes. I am a cooler me. A Tougher than Leather Run-D.M.C. me. A rock along to AC/DC Back in Black me. A punk-rocker emo core me. A this is who I really am & I like it me”. To make this even worse, now dad replies, “cool”. In fact, dad tells us his only real concern, “It’s just that you’re a black boy, And… I don’t want anyone to have another reason to doubt you” to which Isaiah replies, “But, Dad, it’s just… paint”. A girl he likes simply tells him, “I like that color”. This leads to him later painting his nails again, this time black. The author eventually introduces a “girls get to do” type argument to further sell this as ok. While this fortunately never gets escalated further into gender confusion it still falls into this dangerous “who I really am” category that is so incredibly dangerous for our children. There is certainly a decent amount of heavy content Christian parents will need to consider for your readers. During a scene the main character’s closest friend is all of a sudden killed when hit by a car while on his bike. This happens right in front of him and sends him into a depression spiral. Sadly, at the funeral this distraught boy says, “The preacher preaches of being in a better place. A place of no suffering. Or sadness. He don’t know Darius like that. Darius wasn’t suffering. Wasn’t sad either. Wish this preacher would stop his huffing and puffing of words that don’t mean nothing”. Much of the book is working through this trauma as it get heavy. We hear of a couple other tragedies (e.g., “gunman killed all these worshipers”). Later Isaiah is attacked by two grown men and beaten badly. When recounted later in the book a decent amount of detail is given. He later has nightmares reliving this and seeing his dead friend. In the news we hear of “a bombing overseas” and “a mass shooter”. There are so, so many musical references, most of which fall into the rock category. These are typically accompanied by content that makes them seem very positive and cool. Examples: AC/DC, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Journey, Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Metallica, Led Zeppelin (special emphasis on this last one), Queen, KISS, Panic @ the Disco, Meet Me @ the Alter, Kansas, Jemi Hendrix, Prince, Bad Brains, Fishbone, Oxymorons, Lenny Kravitz, The View, Five Three Eyes, The New Respects, Guns N Roses, etc. Several of these have specific songs listed. The unfortunate term “Gawds of Rock” is used multiple times (someone is also called the “gawd of nerdom”). There are a few rap/hip-hop references as well (e.g., Wu-Tang Clan). The following references are also made: Miles Morales, Donkey Kong, comics, WWE, Minecraft, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MMA, X-men, zombie, Thor, Spiderman, santa, John Cena. The Last Dragon and several other Kung Fu movies are also referenced. Drew’s dad is in jail and the story comes out that he was mistreated by two police officers. Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have any positive representations of the (vast majority) of good police officers to offset this. An interesting aspect of this book to consider for your young reader stems from it being written as “a novel in verse”. This sounds great, but it is good to know that in this case it leads to a full book of things like “He ain’t almost make it” and “Bet. Swear this word gon’ get us killed yo”. This book is made up of dialogue like this. If you are on the fence with this, consider reading a couple pages and get a feel for it. Other things to consider: One of the boys comments “Come September we’ll be guppies surrounded by sharks… I’ve seen what happens to dudes like me in high school, seen it played out in movies… dudes get stuffed into lockers. Gym clothes stolen. Left to run around naked. That’s what happens. Like I said, seen it play out”. At school one set of people are referred to as “magic tarot-reading girls”. There are passing references to vampires. The following comments are made: “You stupid”, “only girls and guys who dig guys”, “hella”, “like a haunted house”. The term “dope” is used several times for “cool” despite the fact that it also stands for hard drugs. When a rude and angry man starts yelling Darius (a child) starts being rude and disrespectful right back. Mom is said to “curse”. Drew threatens, “Better get the hell on”. Drew meets a boy named Grady who quickly tells him, “There’s lots of girls round here. Cute ones, ugly ones, in-between ones”. A store is named “Willie’s Beer & Groceries”. A location in town is called “Devil’s Slope”. Isaiah’s aunt uses “She” when referring to God. His uncle shares very worldly wisdom when he advises that “Man is man. We act on our nature. We make choices. Good, and bad. Most of us try to be more good than bad. Others, well, they reason their bad is good. Justified” (this dangerous thinking comes across as very wise to the young reader)”. Similar worldly wisdom is shared, “You got a right to joy and peace and whatever else you want, understand?”. A girl tells a local legend horror story, “Now every Valentine’s Day, she comes back for blood”. Isaiah is off alone a lot with the girl he likes. They eventually kiss. In the author’s acknowledgements she shares that “Our ancestors watch over me”.