Coming of Age. Schülerbuch

The novel Coming of Age, written 1991 by Lorri Hewett, is about the life and typical racial problems in American high schools. When I started reading first the book seemed a little bit strange because of the used slang and the sudden access in the plot but after a few pages I started to like it. On the one hand, the book surprises with it's unknown, different narrative form and on the other hand, it's fun reading the colloquial language and to get to know the daily routine in an American highschool. Furthermore it's very interesting to see the coming of age of the different main characters Ruthie, AJ and Erika and to track the development of their whole lives. I think the book is written in an attractive way and especially its way of narrative animates you to identify with the protagonists. The different characters almost force the reader to feel the same because you get to know their innermost feelings, their whole thinking and sentiments. With the aid of this special narrative style you become acquainted with each of the narrators excellently and you get unputdownable when reading the story. To put it in a nutshell, it's very worth reading and I would recommend it to everyone who is interested in romantic stuff combinated with tough and rough monotony of everyday life. Written by Lex, Hex and Mex from TEXas.

Review of "Coming of Age" The novel "Coming of Age", by Lorri Hewett (1991), talks mainly about the relations amoung black and white people. My first impression of this book was kind of weird because the author starts from the beginning of the book to show deeply the feelings of the narrator. So she speaks naturalyl about the friends, the narrator has. Consequently, you need time to understand the basic situation. Later also the slang, which was little bit a problem in the beginning, was no problem to me, to understand, after I read a few pages. But all in all, the language was easy so you could follow the story well, although I didnt like some special vocabulary. The title of the book "Coming of Age", gives you the idea to think about some youths getting older and behaving more sensible. Ruthie, one of the protagonist seems to be responsible from the beginning of the book. But later you can also see how she changes by having a boyfriend. AJ the second protagonist has obviously changed during the book as you can mention in the course of the story by observing first his language, second the way he cares for his brother Anthony, third just the way he acts and thinks and fourth the way he loves and cares about a girlfriend. Erika, the third protagonist shows changes at the very end of the book, when she can stand on her own. The purpose in writing the book is mainly to show the situation between black and white people in the USA, to show what kind of problems they have, and how some people get along with it, while there is also a person who would like to see no difference between black and white. On the contrary, the author still wants to make the reader like reading the book. According to this, the author also writes about themes which are interesting to youths. This is also the reason, why I don't like the book. For there are some situation described in too much detail between a boy and a girl. These scenes could manipulate you, in case you have no directly idea of a relationship between both sexes before their marriage. All in all, this book is a good way to learn slang English which you can use when you are in a conversation with Americans. But in the other hand, you will be confronted with some scene which are ethically not acceptable. So I would only recommend the book, if you analyzed everything what is not acceptable for you, before you read the book.