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27th out of 30 books
—
7 voters
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence, A True Story in Black and White
by
Geoffrey Canada,
Jamar Nicholas (Goodreads Author)
Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children,” and First Lady Michelle Obama called him “one of my heroes,” Geoffrey Canada was a small and scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys” learned the codes of th
...morePaperback, 124 pages
Published
September 14th 2010
by Beacon Press
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Hey,TGIF! I love to read graphic novels for many reasons, one of them is to chill and relax after a long, pleasant week of reading seriously good novels. One of my daughters told me about Jamar Nicholas, she has an interest in art, so I checked him out. This is one serious read about life and learning some hard lessons, no matter where you come from. Check out what is between the covers:
“Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty e...more
“Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty e...more
Geoffrey Canada's story is vivid. He remembers his childhood so well, describes it in great detail, and Jamar Nicholas' illustrations really bring it to life. This story, about Canada's integration into a violent urban life, is heartbreaking, but I couldn't stop reading. It's a great personal story of The Code of the Street.
I honestly think the epilogue does not serve the story well. It pushes the book into didactic, instead of letting Canada's experiences speak for themselves.
But I really app...more
I honestly think the epilogue does not serve the story well. It pushes the book into didactic, instead of letting Canada's experiences speak for themselves.
But I really app...more
1 like · like · see review
A very interesting and informative look into the life of a child who grew up in The Bronx during the 1950s and 1960s. The author gives us a picture of what it was like to be a boy living in the ghetto, and the ways that boys adapted to an environment of intense violence.[return][return]Beyond all of this it's an entertaining read, depressing as it might be at times. The illustrations are rather good, and lend the story another level of depth. Kudos to whoever recognized this story would benefit...more
Mmmkay...I have to make a confession. My ears immediately perk up when I hear or see a book that lends itself to a 'full disclosure on my life whilst in the bleak caverns of violence'. In fact, that little gem of Truth right there is the reason why I read (and reviewed) Gang Leader for a Day last year.
But why, you might ask. Especially if you knew me. I mean, I'm no Pollyanna by any means, but I do like to think of myself as a "let's just give peace a chance" kinda gal. No really. I am. Which me...more
But why, you might ask. Especially if you knew me. I mean, I'm no Pollyanna by any means, but I do like to think of myself as a "let's just give peace a chance" kinda gal. No really. I am. Which me...more
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
This book is a graphic novel adaptation of a book by the same title that was originally published in 1995. Jamar Nicholas, the artist, does a fantastic job of illustrating the words that Geoffrey Canada wrote. He captures the fear of young boys as they are forced to fight and the violence they witness growing up, and he captures the triumph they feel at overcoming an opponent or standing up for a friend. It is a compelling story and a good...more
This book is a graphic novel adaptation of a book by the same title that was originally published in 1995. Jamar Nicholas, the artist, does a fantastic job of illustrating the words that Geoffrey Canada wrote. He captures the fear of young boys as they are forced to fight and the violence they witness growing up, and he captures the triumph they feel at overcoming an opponent or standing up for a friend. It is a compelling story and a good...more
SUMMARY:
In the form of a graphic novel, Geoffrey Canada tells his own true story of struggling to break out of the streets in which survival meant downplaying one's intelligence while the choice of weapons escalated and the deaths of friends became commonplace. I think students will be fascinated by this book from beginning to end. Many students will identify with the events and ideas in this book. The South Bronx is not really that far from some of their personal experiences, or from the world...more
In the form of a graphic novel, Geoffrey Canada tells his own true story of struggling to break out of the streets in which survival meant downplaying one's intelligence while the choice of weapons escalated and the deaths of friends became commonplace. I think students will be fascinated by this book from beginning to end. Many students will identify with the events and ideas in this book. The South Bronx is not really that far from some of their personal experiences, or from the world...more
This is a graphic novel adaptation of an earlier more detailed, text only, book of the same name. I would call this an autobiography, but it is not as detailed as autobiographies usually are. This autobiography just focuses on violent episodes in the author's childhood and how they shaped him. Geoffrey Canada is the president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone. He tells his story to illustrate the condition poor inner city children live in. [return][return]This new edition includes the sub-su...more
I've had this book for ten years. Today, I picked it up and read it.
In the epilogue to Canada's personal history of violence, he writes, "While nationally we have foolishly invested our precious resources in a criminal justice approach to solving our crime problem--including hiring more police and locking up more people for longer periods of time--we have nothing to show for it except poorer schools, poorer services for youth, and more people on the streets, unemployable because they have a cri...more
In the epilogue to Canada's personal history of violence, he writes, "While nationally we have foolishly invested our precious resources in a criminal justice approach to solving our crime problem--including hiring more police and locking up more people for longer periods of time--we have nothing to show for it except poorer schools, poorer services for youth, and more people on the streets, unemployable because they have a cri...more
Fist Stick Knife Gun is yet another book on gang violence. I've been lately reading/watching stuff on this topic. It is totally unplanned, mostly coincidental, but I can't help but notice its recurrence. First it was Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri and then this book. Now, just last night, I watched the movie - Freedom Writers (which by the way is awesome).
Fist Stick Knife Gun was illustrated by Jamar Nicholas, based on Geoffrey Canada's memoir by the same title. This is th...more
Fist Stick Knife Gun was illustrated by Jamar Nicholas, based on Geoffrey Canada's memoir by the same title. This is th...more
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence
Geoffrey Canada
adapted by Jamar Nicholas
Beacon Press
2010
Based on the best selling book of the same name, Fist Stick Knife Gun is the true story of a boy growing up in the Bronx, surrounded by gangs and violence. Mr. Canada shares with the reader how children in his neighborhood were indoctrinated to violence at a young age and how each year the violence escalated.
The prose is simple, straight-forward, and moving. The illustrations are successfu...more
Geoffrey Canada
adapted by Jamar Nicholas
Beacon Press
2010
Based on the best selling book of the same name, Fist Stick Knife Gun is the true story of a boy growing up in the Bronx, surrounded by gangs and violence. Mr. Canada shares with the reader how children in his neighborhood were indoctrinated to violence at a young age and how each year the violence escalated.
The prose is simple, straight-forward, and moving. The illustrations are successfu...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book opened my eyes to the problems in life faced by many millions of the most troubled Americans in our inner cities. I enjoyed the way the author told stories of his childhood and later adult experiences working with the youth growing up as he did. His style of writing is engaging and entertaining. The author presents some solutions to the problems he discusses, but it doesn't seem our country will ever really make significant headway with actually meaningful solutions towards solving pro...more
This was my second First Read's win and another pretty good book. It was nothing life changing, though perhaps that was the aim of it, but it was an enjoyable read. Well drawn and well written with an interesting insight into the violence that plagues the inner city. Fist Stick Knife Gun helps me, a middle class white kid from rural America, appreciate and understand how the youth of the inner city is inducted into a life of violence from their beginning years. To see that their was no alternati...more
I should have rather read the book. The art is dark and murky and the timeline of events is unclear. Geoffrey Canada is drawn the same until college, so it is hard to decipher his age for many events unless it is explicitly told. All characters are poorly drawn abd it's hard to keep track of who is who.
Canada is one of my personal heroes, so I have othing but praise for this book. His progression from a frightened young boy growing up in the South Bronx, to the founder of the Harlem Children's Zone, his is an inspirational story of a journuey from tragedy to triumph and discovery to dedication.
I was surprised by how much I liked this -- adaptation, message-heavy, short, comic-strip like drawing (not the best not the worst type). But I liked it alot! It was about Canada's childhood in NYC, neighborhood cliques, fights, boy gangs, encounters with gun violence. Was honest and smart, about the natural human urge to violence, especially for self-defense and to prove oneself. Spoke from the heart, didn't offer any easy answers or moralizing, but really "made you think" as it were, and as wa...more
“Possessing a gun feels like the ultimate form of protection. On the streets of a big American city, having this kind of personal protection may even seem to some to make sense.
But it doesn’t.
I know from personal experience.
In 1971, well before the explosion of handguns on the streets of New York City, I bought a handgun.”
But it doesn’t.
I know from personal experience.
In 1971, well before the explosion of handguns on the streets of New York City, I bought a handgun.”
Author Geoffrey Canada does what few authors have been able to do - showcase the experiences and instincts that are developed as a necessity to survive in urban cultures. Exploring his encounters with violence, Canada delves into the mentality of the streets. The nature of violence as a means of protection, defense, or power are given a realistic treatment, existing as every-day occurrences to those who grow up on the streets. Whether its retrieving a jacket or ball, showcasing heart, or adoptin...more
Jun 20, 2012
Kendra
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
teachers, educators, youth workers, social workers
Recommended to Kendra by:
John Lee
I know the heart of the book is Canada's personal experience on the battlefield of the South Bronx, an experience that informs his thorough and creative response(s) to the battlefield that is now young soldiers with guns. But I was distracted, as others have mentioned, by the seeming contradiction between glorifying the fights in which he engaged as a youth and the peacemaking he endorses in his work with youth, particularly in Harlem today. Also, the book was organized in a confusing way and po...more
Canada's memoir, and Nicholas' art, offer a vivid and sometimes disturbing examination of growing up on the tough streets in the '60s and '70s. Canada's final decision about the role violence would play in his life is powerful.
I read it in about an hour. In an hour, I met Geoffrey Canada at the age of four, round-eyed when his mother insists his older brother confront a neighborhood thief to retrieve a stolen jacket. I saw him, at six, get robbed of sixty-one cents after he'd been trusted to walk to the store alone. (Alone! At six! Every cell of 'mom' in me sat up and waved her arms and shrieked when I read that.) I was worried when he found a knife in the gutter, and alarmed when he bought a gun.
I thought it was gut-...more
I thought it was gut-...more
This book has a ya sticker. but it is awesome i couldnt put it down.It is about a boy that grows up setting a rank on union avenue he stolen from and held at gunpoint. He learns to be tough and stickup for himself.
Thanks to Goodreads and Beacon Press for sending this to me through first-reads.
I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to booktalk it for my 9th grade students. Jamar Nicholas does a wonderful job of adapting Geoffrey Canada's memoir of learning the codes and conduct of violence as a boy growing up in the South Bronx. The simple language and powerful themes will appeal to both reluctant and enthusiastic readers, as will the incredibly expressive drawings. It would be great to pair this book w...more
I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to booktalk it for my 9th grade students. Jamar Nicholas does a wonderful job of adapting Geoffrey Canada's memoir of learning the codes and conduct of violence as a boy growing up in the South Bronx. The simple language and powerful themes will appeal to both reluctant and enthusiastic readers, as will the incredibly expressive drawings. It would be great to pair this book w...more
As with Sentences, MF Grimm's story, I can't possibly find fault with the story, since it is Mr. Canada's own past. It is told well, with powerful imagery from Jamar Nicholas. I do wish we got more of a macrocosmic view of the world, with a deeper reflection on what adults might do (or -- better yet -- might have done) to ameliorate the sort of violence described here.
As someone who works with teenagers (some of whom are prone to this sort of violence, though surely nothing like what goes on in...more
As someone who works with teenagers (some of whom are prone to this sort of violence, though surely nothing like what goes on in...more
This biographical graphic novel is very heartbreaking and insightful. It would be good paired with Yummy. The violence is toned down, but there is some tough language.
I'm going to echo all of the positive reviews here, with one quibble. On the last page of his own story, (view spoiler)...more
Pretty good bio on how life really is in the inner city and how it's gotten even more dangerous.
A distillation of Goeffrey Canada's memoir of violence in his youth. His life growing up in the South Bronx was punctuated by violence and learning the lessons of the street. Most days were fine but there was always the threat of violence and having to fight to keep your status. The illustrations work well to evoke the period and keep the story moving. I wanted to read more and will consider reading the full memoir. He's doing amazing work in the Harlem Children's Zone and his work is definitely...more
I received a free copy of this from a goodreads give away and really enjoyed it. I had been meaning to read the original for a long time and didn't realize that this was a graphic adaptation. That said, it was a quick read and it didn't sit on my bedside table for ages competing with the other things I was reading. The story is a familiar one, but well told to emphasize the impossible situation kids growing up in violent neighborhoods have to deal with growing up. I'll pass this one on to to my...more
I recieved this book in a FirstReads giveaway. I don't generally read graphic novels, but I was intrigued when I saw the synopsis for this one. After reading the story I went back and really looked at the artwork, it is fantastic. The story itself was interesting too. My childhood couldn't be any more different than the author's, having grown up in white, middle-class suburbia, and yet I could still relate to some of the experiences he had. The wanting to fit in, wanting to figure out how the wo...more
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Geoffrey Canada is an African-American social activist. He is the author of Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America. Since 1990, Canada has been president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone in Harlem, New York.
He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College and a Master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
More about Geoffrey Canada...
He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College and a Master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Jan 10, 2013 05:41am