True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall
by Mark SalzmanSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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In True Notebooks, Mark Salzman relates his experiences teaching a creative writing class to kids in Los Angeles's Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for LA's most violent teenage criminals. Most of the kids who join his class are in jail for "187" - the police code for murder. Many are gang members.
Salzman is initially roped in to teaching the class by his friend Duane, who also teaches at the jail. Initially he's unsure of whether or not to do it, and he spends a lot of ti...more
Salzman is initially roped in to teaching the class by his friend Duane, who also teaches at the jail. Initially he's unsure of whether or not to do it, and he spends a lot of ti...more
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Read in June, 2004
My daughter, soon graduating with honors with a degree in social work and planning a career working with at-risk youth and juvenile offenders, is currently completing an internship in the probate courts. Her work, to boil it down to its essence, is to champion the young people society has forgotten. She stands up in the courtroom as they are about to be tried and sentenced, offering an articulate perspective on the background of these young lives so few seem to care about any longer. Certainly, ...more
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Mark Salzman paints a vivid and engaging portrait of the young men with whom he works in California Juvenile Justice System. The violent offenders come alive and appear endearing, with the stroke of his pen.
Salzman approaches his subject matter with his readers in mind; he appears to be aware that we will agree with his father in thinking that perhaps this is a little insane and very unsafe. But by the time we arrive at Kevin’s trial we are rooting for him. The project that the book present...more
Salzman approaches his subject matter with his readers in mind; he appears to be aware that we will agree with his father in thinking that perhaps this is a little insane and very unsafe. But by the time we arrive at Kevin’s trial we are rooting for him. The project that the book present...more
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This book wasn't one I was going to read to be honest I picked it up because the book I actually wanted to read wasn’t available. But within just a few pages I was getting hooked it was one of those book where I just wanted to keep reading. In just a few pages you read about a teacher named Mark Salzman that decides that he will go and teach a writing class at the juvenile hall. Through out the book you get to know a few kids and get to know about their lives and the reason why they are in jai...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Allison by:
Marlenerecommends it for: Cindy
This book is most definitely one of my new all-time favorites. I have never read a white guy write so honestly about his own awkwardness and fears when confronting kids of not only different races and backgrounds, but life experiences and potentially moral/ethic codes, as well. Of course, what especially appealed to me was the fact that all of this reflection and discovery takes place within the verbal realm. Salzman goes into the juvenile penal system to start a writing class and ends up lea...more
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Read in January, 2005
Through the boys` writings a whole new universe of feelings opens before the eyes of the reader. The boys share their most worst nightmares,their best memories,their feelings of guilt,despair,remorse.They write with amazing clarity and power of emotions. Although the purpose of the book is not directly to critisize the judiciary and penalty system, Mark Salzman doesn`t hide his regret and outrage that almost no work is done to help those boys realise their feelings and cope with them. In fact,hi...more
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Interestingly, I met Salzman as he was writing this book. He was giving a workshop at my college and when discussing his current projects, he spoke glowingly of a book he was writing about his experiences as a writing teacher in the prison system. Most of us in the room, perhaps motivated by once having proximity to a real, established author, rushed to read the book when it came out. However, the reaction was more tepid than anything else. Something about "True Notebooks" felt pre...more
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Read in March, 2008
A really honest look inside a juvenile detention facility in California through the experience of a volunteer writing teacher and his incarcerated students. Mark Salzman has done an incredible job of capturing the lives of these people without falling prey to excessive sympathy, preaching or, to the other extreme, judgement. His accounts are human and realistic, and what the reader takes away is incredibly valuable; a window into a life that is seemingly so separate, but really exists right n...more
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Read in March, 2007
He wrote "Iron and Silk" about 15 years back.That covered his experiences teaching English in China. In this work he continues to enchant me by his self- deprecatory style as he relates his experiences as a volunteer writng teacher for incarcerated young males. He reeled me in by keeping below the radar of the obvious political issues.
Pub. Weekly quote: "As productive as these classes were, everyone was always aware of the painful truth that students would soon be shipped out to...more
Pub. Weekly quote: "As productive as these classes were, everyone was always aware of the painful truth that students would soon be shipped out to...more
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A writer spends a year teaching a writing class in juvenile hall and gets himself caught up in the troubled lives of the boys he teaches. While I've never taught someone who was convicted of murder, the life stories of these boys are not shocking to me at all. The charm, spirit, and beauty the boys carry with them is also not shocking to me at all. I think this book may be intended for people who do not have much contact with urban youth culture and who may hold some prejudices against them. Thi...more
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So basically what happens in this book is Mark Salzman overcomes his fear of juvenile delinquents enough to teach a writing class to an assortment of them every week- well, not exactly "teach" or "class" in the strictest sense of the words.... While he wasn't standing at the front of a classroom pouring the cool waters of knowledge into thirsty young minds, he was fulfilling probably an even more necessary role in the lives of the boys he worked with- he listened to them. He ...more
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I read this book because it was selected by my college for a One Book, One Campus program. It's fascinating and depressing at the same time. Fascinating because the young men in Los Angeles' juvenile justice system are shown as thoughtful and even articulate without underplaying the gravity of their offenses and depressing because it seemed to have taken being incarcerated before they had the opportunity to learn this about themselves. More than one inmate seemed to be genuinely surprised to fin...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Young Adults, AP Language students
As an educator, I seem to be reading a lot of books about teaching adolescents because I guess we want to read about whom we relate to. Salzman doesn't hold back in his account--the good, the bad, and the ugly, especially the individual teenagers he personally finds irredeemable though he acknowledges that he may be making some unfair judgements and the boys who lapse and revert to making stupid choices. I recommend this sad and true caveat of what not to do to any of my errant students.
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Reading True Notebooks changed my life. I was amazed at how much it changed my perspective of the world and of other people. It will challenge every bias and prejudice you may have, even those that are accepted in society, such as believing that criminals are one-dimensional, evil people. It is an incredibly unique true story of teenagers who are in prison for serious crimes. It is a moving experience to read essays and poetry they wrote while in jail. I would recommend it to anyone.
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Read in July, 2008
Mark Salzman gets stuck writing a novel, so he gets roped into a writing class held at a juvenile penitentiary center that doesn't change how he thinks about crime, criminals, or justice. But it does change how he thinks about himself and about how even youth who murder are genuine people with a lot of heartfelt writing to express.
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Read in January, 2007
Salzman finds himself teaching writing to the high-risk inmates at a juvenile prison. Wrenching, gritty and real, this book has an immediacy that reached out and pulled me in. The kids are engaging, and like Salzman, sometimes I forgot that they were murderers and thieves. Salzman's self-deprecating style is calm, observant, amusing. Some of the inmates' writings reproduced herein are heartbreaking. This book made me think.
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I read this while researching juvenile hall and gang activity, and I loved it. Salzman's portraits of the teens he works with are beautiful, and you feel how his relationship with them developed over time. My favorite part was when he gives a Vietnamese inmate a Vietnamese-English dictionary (something the boy didn't even know existed). He exploded into writing after many years of struggling to express himself.
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Read in January, 2005
A writer, Mark Salzman volunteers his time to teach writing to juvenile deliquents at a youth correctional faciility.
It was interesting to see how this writer approached his class. He was kind of scared at first, felt like an outsider, but towards the end he ended up caring for these kids and more importantly making a difference in their lives. These kids also did a really good job of writing, etc.
It was interesting to see how this writer approached his class. He was kind of scared at first, felt like an outsider, but towards the end he ended up caring for these kids and more importantly making a difference in their lives. These kids also did a really good job of writing, etc.
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Read in June, 2005
I just recalled this book today and it took me a bit to remember the title and author, but with some help, I excitedly remembered it all!!!
This is a wonderful book. Salzman's experience is simultaneously scary, heart-wrenching, and uplifting. Definitely a book to market towards mature teens or even teens struggling to keep themselves in line. Wonderful, wonderful book! I think I might re-read it!
This is a wonderful book. Salzman's experience is simultaneously scary, heart-wrenching, and uplifting. Definitely a book to market towards mature teens or even teens struggling to keep themselves in line. Wonderful, wonderful book! I think I might re-read it!
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Read in August, 2007
This book transformed the way I think about the juvenile justice system in the U.S. This book is easy to read, except when it brings you to tears. I found myself engaged not because of Salzman's language, which was fairly mediocre, but more because the subject matter is so compelling, and because Salzman included snippets of the inmates' writing - a perspective you rarely get.
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avg rating (all editions): 4.19 (314 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 4.02 (301 ratings) number of reviews: 69
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