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 before the start of the story, and Elijah the soup kitchen owner functions as a kind of "alternative educator") but they're on the periphery here. ALL THE RIGHT STUFF is all about "the social contract," which I suppose is fine, but I'm not so about the idea that a young person can rise above their environment mostly by holding him or herself to a rigid ethical standard, which is what Myers seems to be suggesting. The whole concept has a bit of a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" feel to it.

Although I haven't read widely in this sub-genre, I guess my problem with this book is that there isn't enough good old fashioned indignation here. Having lived in the city for a few years now, one thing I'm sure of is that people have the right to be angry at the systems that are failing them.

I won this book as part of a goodreads firstreads giveaway.