Durango Street

The book Durango Street, written by Frank Bonham, focuses on the struggles of a teenage boy who leaves juvenile detention and immediately faces the danger of gangs in his neighborhood. When members of a gang attack Rufus on his first night home, he is faced with the impossible decision of whether to join a rival gang in order to gain the protection it would provide, or attempt to survive on his own.

I first heard of this book through the movie Freeedom Writers, in which the teacher gives this book to her students in order to draw them into the literature and give them a plot they could relate to on a personal level. For that reason, and the fact that I saw this plot as one that would be more interesting to male students, I was very interested in reading this book myself. Although there were some dry-ish spots throughout the book in which I had a difficult time engaging with the content, I really enjoyed it overall. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the entire book remains almost entirely clean from inappropriate content, which is always appreciated. I also see male students being completely interested and engaged with this plot.