Building my niece's library My niece is a huge fan of this author. This is another book of Draper's that my niece has enjoyed.
Kendalls Book Review
Darkness Before Dawn by Sharon M. Draper is the last book in the Hazelwood High Trilogy. Keisha is eighteen, in her senior year in high school, and attending Hazelwood High in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is on the cross country team and the new track coach is Jonathan Hathaway. He is twenty-three and his dad is the principal at her school. Keisha really likes him and he also likes her. When they start dating, Keisha does not tell her parents. After she tells her parents, they want to meet him, and when they do meet him, both of them are not sure if he is right for Keisha. She tells them that Jonathan makes her smile and laugh and that she has not been this happy since Andy, her ex-boy friend, had killed himself. Even though her parents and some of her friends are scared by Jonathan's golden eyes and think that he looks like a crazed animal, Keisha feels that Jonathan is the right guy. Until one night when she falls in a deep hole that she has been trying to avoid since the death of Andy.
Readers who are ages twelve to sixteen and have read the two other books in this great trilogy would really enjoy Darkness Before Dawn. The way Sharon M. Draper writes is so amazing because of the emotion and all the drama that she puts into her writing. The book is a great way to get across to kids who have similar problems and let them have some way to express themselves or someone to relate to, even if it's not real. While the characters are not real, they are dealing with real problems that happen in the real world. Sharon M. Draper is a great author and if a reader has problems at school, at home, or any other kind of problems, they should read this book.
One mother's opinion My teenager and I just finished reading this book as a summer reading requirement for school. We both agreed that it was one of the worst books we had ever read. The conversations were silly, the word "dude" was said at least 3 dozen times (who says "dude" anymore anyway?) and the situations were melodramatic to say the least. We both agree there are much better options out there for high school students and our hope is that the English teacher who chose this for class won't require any more from this author. Fantastic!!! This book is continuation of Tears of a Tiger. Keisha was Andy's girlfriend and now left with rest of her friends Ronda, Tyrone, BJ, Gerald, and Leon to survive without out their two friends Andy and Rob, who both died. Now in her senior year Keisha is selected class president and is having the best year. The principal's 23-year-old son is the new track coach and he has his eye on Keisha. Slowly Keisha begins to find comfort in 23-year-old Jonathan and starts going out with him. Soon the relationship takes a wrong turns when Jonathan takes Keisha to his apartment and tries to rape and kill her with his jack knife.
Sharon M. Draper is the greatest well-known writer that I know. I love his style of writing and how she brings her characters to live. Every book she ever made is great and I can't wait til she makes more.
Painfully Wonderful There is pain in this book that you hope no one goes through. It follows Keisha after the death of her boyfriend, which is one thing she could've done without and then the near-rape she encounters. (Read TEARS OF A TIGER first.)
This book makes you wonder about the amount of suffering in the modern black community; does Draper portray it as harsher than it really is, or do more people than we want to think live these kind of lives?
