Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Walter Dean Myers is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress, and the recipient of multiple Newbery and Coretta Scott King awards, among other honors. He is passionate about the vital importance of reading, especially to economically disadvantaged people.

His amazing novel All the Right Stuff is packed with challenging ideas set in the context of urban life. It's thought-provoking, teaches teens a lot about soci More...

Paul DuPree has landed a summer job working at a soup kitchen in Harlem. Owned and operated by Elijah Jones, a philosophical elderly man who wants to give back to others. Paul and his mother live alone, and Paul continues to try to make sense of his father's life and death. While teaching Paul how to prepare different soups, Elijah introduces him to the concept of the social contract by which he lives his life. As Paul ponders these new ideas, he encounters others, including a Harlem entrepreneu More...

Paul got lucky this summer and got one of the four community jobs that were paying and as luck would have it, he could walk to work so things were looking up. But what was that? His father wasn’t so lucky. He was shot, on accident and Paul has mixed feeling about this since his father really hadn’t been a father in Paul’s eyes. Divorced from his mother, Paul’s father had been living off the streets, Paul can’t figure out his father and now that he was permanently out of his life, he “just felt k More...

This was a really good, fast, easy teen read about the summer young Paul DuPree loses the father he never really knew. He spends the summer working two jobs. In a soup kitchen where he meet adults who make him think, and being a mentor to a teen-aged mother who needs to learn to think herself.

This is not a romance. It's not about Paul getting together with the hot girl but about Paul coming to grips with his feelings about life and his dead father.

In the beginning Paul stares at his father's c More...

Paul is very lucky to get one of four public service jobs available through his school in Baltimore. He will be working at a soup kitchen for senior citizens, which is run by the 84-year-old Elijah. Paul is struggling because his mostly absent father, who has had problems with substance abuse, has been shot in a store robbery gone wrong. Luckily, his single mother is hardworking and holds him to very high standards. Elijah teaches Paul not only about soup but about the "social contract" and how More...

I loved the characters' voices in this book. The story was engaging and the protagonist quite likable. And honestly, the book made me interested in that combination of political science and philosophy that I don't generally find interesting, which is quite an accomplishment.

The only thing that didn't quite ring true was the likelihood that the main character, Paul, would encounter two older men both wanting to converse with him about the social contract and what it means to them. I could believe More...

This is a kindhearted, well written, and rather short and easy YA book about a young inner city black man who gets a summer job at a soup kitchen, where an older man teaches him about the social contract.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, because I do think these issues need to be discussed. The two biggest issues for young people in the city are without a doubt gun violence and the public schools, and Myers does write about these issues (the protagonist's dad was shot and killed just More...

Walter Dean Myers is a renowned young adult author, who is known for his emotional and powerful novels that truly showcase the inner turmoil of a character. With books like Monster and Falling Angels, Myers really showed his writing power through his expression of words through the pages of many of his other books. With this in mind, I am truly a little surprised with this new book, All The Right Stuff. A very thought provoking, intellectual piece of writing, however it exhibited very little in More...

Paul Dupree has recently lost his father but is not grieving. As far as he was concerned, he was not there for him in the begining, his death does not move him one bit. Although his mother is sad about his death, his father absence does not make a difference. When he gets a job working in a soup kitchen, he meets an eldery man Elijah that tells him about the 'social contract' and tries to instill life lessons to him. Although Paul is hesitant to agree with what he has to say about life,disciplin More...

"Hard work by itself isn't worth two cents on a rainy day if it doesn't give you a good life."

—Elijah Jones, All the Right Stuff, P. 103

I don't know if anyone but Walter Dean Myers would be capable of pulling off a book like this one. In the year 2012, when All the Right Stuff debuted in the marketplace, the field of young-adult literature was all about immediacy and action, even in stories without much suspense or adventure. If the events of the narrative weren't designed to generate tensio More...

Very slow, philosphical book that goes into great detail about the social contract and names the philosophers that wrote about it.

MULTI-CULTURAL: African Americans, Homeless, Drug users and sellers, Senior Citizens, Teen Mothers

Primarily filled with conversations between Paul, a 16 year, and Eijah, owner of the Soup Emporium that feeds local Sr. Citizens for free. Sly, the local drug dealer/big man on the street, also talks with Paul about it. Elijah and Sly see the social contract from two diff More...

I won my copy through Goodreads First Reads.

This is a quick read that will hopefully inspire you to push yourself in future endeavors. In the book, Paul lands a job in a soup kitchen working for Elijah. Through Paul’s discussions with Elijah we are introduced to philosophy of the “social contract.” With his new understanding Paul looks at how the social contract is affecting the people in his life and whether he believes it is better to live within or without these rules.

Elijah is awesome. I l More...

The summer after his father is killed in a random shooting, Paul gets an internship working in a soup kitchen and mentoring a basketball player with her eyes on the WNBA. Elijah, who runs the soup kitchen, teaches Paul about the social contract and making tasty food. Paul, in the meantime is caught between Elijah and Sly, a smooth talking gangster from Harlem.

I like the premise of this book, all about the social contract, but it was a little heavy handed for me. Paul and Elijah spend most of the More...

Myers creates a story from the perspective of a teen Paul growing up in the Harlem area of New York during troublesome times in a young man's life. The story flows with outside characters showing the other side of what Paul is being taught during his time volunteering for the soup kitchen for seniors. As his coming of age grows from within, Myers has the main charcter experience all aspects of what is to come in life to see how he will adjust and learn from it. Well thought and recommened as an More...

Not the best Myers book by a long shot. This short book is packed with the philosophical banter between Paul and Elijah, an older man running a soup kitchen he calls Elijah's Soup Emporium. Elijah begins right away laying it on thick with life lessons, using the social contract as a way to get Paul to think. Meanwhile, Paul also must mentor a young black teen with a baby to improve her basketball to hopefully get ahead.

There wasn't much to latch on to and I skipped through most of the middle, f More...

Walter Dean Myers has a gift for pulling in his readers and "teaching" them great moral lessons without forcing a message down their throats. One of my favorite short stories, The Treasure of Lemon Brown, was written by Myers as well so I was really excited to have this opportunity to win his new book! It did not disappoint- the story is about a teenage male growing up in Harlem, who gets the opportunity to work in a soup kitchen for the summer. He meets Elijah and together they have what I call More...

I heard Walter Dean Myers interviewed on NPR a couple of weeks ago and was reminded how much I loved his fiction when I was a teenager (Fallen Angels, Hoops, Scorpions). WDM is now a national ambassador for reading to young adults. This is his most recent book and it is quite philosophical. Although the story of Paul working in the soup kitchen is compelling, it felt like the real story was bogged down by Myers' heavy handed message about the "social contract." In many ways, his message is about More...

Fifteen year old Paul Dupree learns more than how to make soup when he goes to work at a soup kitchen in Harlem. Having lost his father in a shoot out, Paul is trying to make sense out of his own life and dreams of better times. His mentor,Elijah the "soup man" dishes out wisdom along with soup, and Paul comes to understand the political philosopy of the social contract and how it makes sense in the society in which he lives. All the Right Stuff is a gritty, heart warming, and thought provoking More...

Walter Dean Myers is an excellent writer. This one is a bit different from his other books--while it still has an African-American urban setting, it's more of a philosophical treatise for teens. When a boy gets a community service job at a soup kitchen, he doesn't expect to have philosophical discussions on the nature of a social contract. Great book that would pair excellently with high school discussions about the American Dream, the Founding Fathers, or that article comparing white privilege More...

When the phenomenal Walter Dean Myers's book All the Right Stuff arrived in my mailbox, I had no idea I was about to be schooled in the philosophical idea of the social contract.

I'm used to Myers's thoughtful but action-packed stories - this one was a beautifully, humanely written contemplation of the systems that can help us or hurt as as we go through life, and the messy combination of injustice and opportunity we all face to varying degrees.

I don't dig philosophical writing, generally. I've More...

This book offers the reader a lot to think about. It would be great for a class/group discussion on politics/economics/sociology/history of the US. I think the more he writes - the better WDM gets. His writing is crisp and the messages clear. He wants the reader to think about the world we live in. I was drawn into the story and read this book in one sitting. It's written at a fairly easy level - but the concepts are advanced and I continue to puzzle over them. This book does have a lot of right More...

I received this book through the Firstreads program.

Having read some of Walter Dean Myers' work before, and having had the chance to meet him and speak with him, I knew I could expect certain things from this novel. I knew that the main character would be in a less than ideal environment, and that each of his works was meant to convey a significant message to the reader.

However, I certainly did not expect how much of an impact this book made on the way I look at our society that we live in. In t More...

****PLEASE NOTE THAT I WON THIS FROM GOODREADS FIRST READS****

This was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on 7/16/2012: http://midnight-orchids.blogspot.com/...

This was a really well written book. Being that I have my BA in Sociology, this was right up my alley.I could really relate to the story in it's entirety. Not just with the characters, but with the themes and lessons as well. The book is all about Paul Dupree's struggle with coming to terms with what social contract theory is More...

Walter Dean Myers turns a philosophical idea (“SOCIAL CONTRACT” [you act a certain way to receive a certain benefit]) into a story. The story gets a little heavy at times due to the topic, but in a good way; causing the reader to think! I always enjoy reading Walter Dean Myer books; he NEVER dissapoints. This is a good, gritty, urban book about a young man being mentored by an unlikely source; his boss (Elijah). Myers paints a real story of hope in the ashes of poverty

Fresh addition to the WDM shelf. Young man with wits enough to think about life with a philosophical older man who provides soup and food for thought to hunger senior citizens. What a great literary device to bring the discussion of the social contract to another generation. If libraries are based on conversation, this book is a rock solid addition to a foundation toward building thoughtful citizens.

Paul DuPree is a teen who has lost his hardly present dad to a shooting that is commonplace in Harlem. Working in a soup kitchen just to get by, he is forced to listen to the soup man, Elijah talk about “the social contract” and how to feel good in a world that isn’t fair for everyone. A gripping, extraordinary Myers book will save lives with Paul’s learned lessons.

The thing that I love best about reading a book by Walter Dean Myers is that I get a different story every time. While I may not always love that story or find it to be the best ever, I like that Myers is not a one note author. All The Right Stuff is no different, it was a story I had not read before. There is no romance. There’s not exactly a gang. The main character, Paul isn’t exactly having a huge dilemma. Rather, All The Right Stuff is an examination of the social contract, you know stuff y More...

A quick read that I ended up reading in one day. Never read anything else by the author, but most say I liked his work. Was a really good book that I got into. At first I honestly wasn't sure, but then the more I got interested, the more I felt like the character while reading. I thought it had a lot of good messages, and parts that really made you think.

Will you live your life or let life push you around? Paul is trying to figure out how make something of himself when life is not fair. This could be an advanced philosophy /government /ethics study book, and I don't think I know any middle schoolers who would stick with it enough to understand the meaning. But it's there.

This slim volume was a quick and intriguing read for me, but I wonder how many teen readers (especially those looking for action, sports, or grit) will stick with the philosophical discussions that the sixteen-year-old protagonist has with his competing mentors. I think patient, thoughtful readers will be rewarded.