Hip-Hop High School

Hip-Hop High School by Alan Lawrence Sitomer Hyperion Books for Children, 2006, 384 pp., $16.99 Urban Youth/Self-Reliance ISBN: 0-7868-5515-0

Alan Sitomer first introduced the Anderson family in The Hoopster, a novel that traced Andre Anderson's battle with racist teens. Now, we learn more about Andre's younger sister, Theresa (Tee-Ay), as she struggles in the shadow of her respected older brother. The novel begins the first day of her sophomore year, detailing her struggles with the hard reality of her urban high school and her secret desires to make it to USC upon high school graduation. With hip-hop and its messages ever present, Tee-Ay uses her love of music to help understand her friends' struggles with violence, poverty and teen pregnancy, all the while secretly practicing her SAT vocabulary in hopes of escaping these realities.

Told in the language of urban youth, this novel provides an honest look into what it is like to try to survive in an inner-city school. Rather than settling for despair, however, Tee-Ay learns how to make something of herself through her budding friendship with Devon, the class valedictorian, and her ambivalent relationship with her teacher Mr. Wardin.

Robyn Seglem

Olathe, KS

Copyright Assembly on Literature for Adolescents -- National Council of Teachers of English Summer 2006
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