Tyrell

Title: Tyrell
Author: Coe Booth
Publication Date: 2006
Number of Pages: 310
Genre: Young Adult fiction
Geographical Setting: Bronx, New York
Time Period: mid 2000s
Series: N/A

Plot: Tyrell has a lot to worry about even though he is only fifteen. He stopped going to school and has to live in a homeless shelter with his irresponsible mother and younger brother. All he wants is to be able to take care of his girl but how can he with no job or money? He has a plan but he doesn’t want to end up in jail, like his dad.

Subject Headings: inner city teens, poverty, homelessness, homeless shelter, jail, DJ, African-American

Appeal: parent in jail, temptations of quick money by selling drugs, the realities of living in roach-infested homeless shelters/hotels, use of street lingo but not so much as to alienate readers, some descriptions of sexual acts, writer once worked with teenagers and families in crisis in the Bronx

If you liked Tyrell, you might enjoy: E.R Frank’s Life is Funny. Walter Dean Myer’s Street Verse. Allison Van Diepen’s Street Pharm. Kate Morgenroth's Jude.