Scorpions

Name: Scorpions
Brand: Harper Audio
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Author: Walter Dean Myers
ISBN: 9780061782114

Author: Walter Dean Myers

Narrator: Peter Francis James

Unabridged: 5 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 03/03/2009

Categories: Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes

Synopsis

The Scorpions are a gun-toting Harlem gang, and Jamal Hicks is about to become tragically involved with them in this authentic tale of the sacrifice of innocence and the struggle to steer clear of violence.This Newbery Honor Book will challenge young men to consider their own decisions as they come of age in a complex and often frustrating society.Pushed by a bully to fight and nagged by his principal, Jamal is having a difficult time staying in school. His home life is not much better, with his mother working her fingers to the bone to try to earn the money for an appeal for Jamal's jailed older brother, Randy.Jamal wants to do the right thing and help earn the money to free his brother by working, but he's afraid to go against the Scorpions. Jamal eventually pulls free of the gang's bad influence, but only through the narrowest of escapes.Walter Dean Myers, five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, sensitively explores the loyalty and love between friends faced with hard choices. Scorpions is 25 years old, but the issues of poverty and violence make it a timeless powerful read—sadly as relevant as ever.

About Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers was the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award; a National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers was recognized by every single major award in the field of children's literature. He was the author of two Newbery Honor Books and five Coretta Scott King Book Award winners. He was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and a three-time National Book Award finalist as well as the first ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

About Peter Francis James

Peter Francis James has starred in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions, as well as on such television programs as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, New York Undercover and State of Affairs.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lanier on July 26, 2008

"In a moment that passed so quickly that it was almost a memory before it happened, Tito had turned and run back to the cab." It wasn't until re-reading a few sections over again, over the phone with this young student's summer reader, that Myers hits you. If you read too quickly you miss some great......more

Goodreads review by Evan on July 19, 2013

In this gripping urban tale, 12-year old Jamal is a protagonist growing up with many chips stacked against him. His single mother struggles to balance the duties of rearing 3 children (one of whom was recently imprisoned for murder) with the various responsibilities of life in the ghetto, where even......more

Goodreads review by Makiya on May 14, 2015

IF YOU LIKE SURPRISES REAL LIFE RELATED SCARY AND APPALLING STORIES THAN SCORPIONS THEY CAN MAKE YOU ... OR BREAK YOU BY WALTER DEAN MYERS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. TO ME THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING ITS JUST THAT AT THE END OF THE BOOK IT LEFT ME OPEN WITH A LOT OF QUESTIONS LIKE DID HIS BROTHER GET OF JAIL? D......more

Goodreads review by Pedro on October 11, 2017

I read the Book “Los Escorpiones” Writer by Walter Dean Myers. Los Escorpiones is a good book, it starts off a little slow but it grabs your attention once you get more into it. I would rate the book I read a ten out of ten because it’s a good book. The book I read was about two brothers, one was th......more

Goodreads review by Amber on May 30, 2021

12-year-old Jamal is facing stressful situations on all sides: he's having trouble at school. which is exacerbated by the casual racism of his principal; his older brother is in jail for killing a man during a robbery; he feels a low-grade constant worry for his mother, who works too hard out of nec......more