Kindness for Weakness by Shawn Goodman
Cover Art by Alexander Shahmiri
Copyright 2013
CYRM Nominee 2016-2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-74325-9
Ages 14 and above
Sometimes good kids, make poor choices.
Book List Review:
Grades 8-12. When 15-year-old James dutifully attempts to deliver drugs for his older brother, whom he idolizes, he is caught by police, convicted, and sentenced to a year in juvenile prison. In the novel that follows, Goodman offers a searing indictment of the so-called juvenile justice system, in which any attempt at kindness is perceived as weakness. Goodman is notably successful at stirring up a visceral reaction from the reader at the flagrant injustices that James encounters, and he does an interesting thing by contrasting James’ experiences with those of Humphrey Van Weyden, the protagonist of Jack London’s classic novel The Sea Wolf (1904). Will James, who perceives himself as “a skinny, friendless loser,” be able to transform himself, or will his bête noire, the system itself, prove to be his undoing?
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