Bang!

Sharon G. Flake wrote Bang! to inform her audience about the hardships of growing up in a ghetto neighborhood, and experiencing death at an early age. Mann Adler was only 11 years old when his younger brother Jason was fatally shot by a gang banger for no apparent reason. The effect that the murder had on the whole Adler family has drastically changed their points of views on life, and their identities. Mann's father takes him and his best friend on a journey to becoming a “man” in a society where your life could be taken the very next day. The moral of his reasonings was to save himself from losing another son. But the reality became a nightmare as Mann turned to violence, drugs/ alcohol and stealing to make a man out of himself. The real question became “ how can the loss of innocence at a very young age detatch you from your identity and the search for assurance when even your family is not in your corner?”
its a really good book and anyone should read it!