Street Love by Walter Dean Myers

Street Love (grades 9-12)
Using a rap beat and rhyme, this Harlem-set story tells of the romance between Damien, a straight-A, college-bound, basketball star whose parents want him to date middle class Roxanne, and Junice, a beautiful street-strong young woman trying to keep her family together after her mom is sent to prison. Share your thoughts about this book by clicking on the link.

Curriculum connections:  How does the jailing of a parental figure affect the lives of the children involved? Write the sequel to Street Love continuing the story of Junice and Damian where it ended.

Connecting with the Times: Street Love is written in fluid mixture of poetry and prose. Find an article in the St. Petersburg Times that focuses on an individual. Rewrite the story using Myers’ style of poetry. Try to convey the main ideas of the article in no more than eight lines.

Comments

[Tiraus Epps]

How many books have you exactly written?

[K.M. , Schleider, ATC]

This book was really awesome; it was different from any other book I’ve read. I really loved how the whole book was written in free verse poetry. I liked how the book was about love and romance, on the urban streets of Harlem, New York. This book was like a modern Romeo and Juliet, filled with amateur and young naïve love. I found myself really connecting with Damien, being just like him surrounding myself around sports, and looking forward to going to a well-known college. The ending was good, with Damien and Junice, with the thoughts of marriage, lying down together peacefully.

[A.B., Schleider,10,ATC]

This book was at first difficult to read because it is written in poetry form, and this is the first story that I have ever read where the story is being told through poems. I thought that, that was kind of interesting. In the beginning it starts off where one of the main characters, Damien is playing basketball in a school court yard. So while Damien is hanging with his friends the quiet girl that he likes walks across the court and all of his friends and him stop and gaze at her and speak highly of her. They try to push Damien up to talk to her but he declines because he has never said more than a word to her and knows nothing about her. Then the next chapter leads in to how the other main characters perspective; Junice speaks about how she likes Damien too but doesn’t know how to approach him. This pace of the book is slow but before long things start to get heated as Damien and Junice finally talk to each other. Personally I would recommend this book because it is very sweet and I enjoy love stories.

[B.D., Schleider, gr. 10, ATC]

The book different. It wasn’t like the usual style that a book would be written in. It was written in poetry form; which was a real attention-grabbing for me.In the book Junice likes Damien, but doesn’t know how to approach him. Damien faces the same problem of approaching someone else they like, but as the book progresses Damien and Junice finally approach one another and talk.I can relate to how both characters feel about approaching someone, because I too am shy when it comes to a situation like that.I agree with one of my fellow schoolmates when they said that the ending when Damien and Junice think of their future life together was very romantic.my question would be “Did the future plans that Damien and Junice make really happen?”.I love the climax of the book because it shows how the two main characters had so much affection for one another that they put all their fears aside, and persue their feelings for each other.

[S.M., Scheilder, gr 10., ATC]

The book Street Love expressed a lot of emotions that I found interesting and entertaining. The beginning of the book was a little vague about the characters and the plot. But as I read further into the book I began to understand the relationship between the characters and the relationships. I found it very interesting that even though Junice’s family was not the perfect bunch that Damien still found the desire to be with her. Junice’s mother had been in jail for selling drugs and she lived with her grandmother who also had a history of violence. I also feel that Melissa, as the younger sister of Junice was under a bad influence. I think the author’s use of pentameter used with rap gave the book a very enthusiastic voice. This book reminds me of Eva from Freedom Writer’s. Her father was also put in jail for acts of violence and she became a lost soul. When I read the end of the book I wonder how things will end up for Junice and Damien and if what they have is truly real love.

[Justin D]

i didn't like this book. it was hard for me to read. because it was written in poetry. now when i read the summary or what its about i thought i would like it because it was about rap (i dont really like rap im a metal, hard rock person.) but it sounded good to me bot when i started to read the book i was like "wow this had the potential to be a good book in my eyes but just all the poetry was annoying and like almose none of it rymed because whan i think of poetry i thing ok like ryeming and the acconational hycoue but ya thas me opption take it or leave it

P.S.
oh ya and all the other high schoolers reading this our school is gona kick you schools butt again 4 years in a row

P.S.S
yes i know my spelling and grammer suck

[M.B Schleider,gr 10., ATC]

Street Love By: Walter Dean Myers
Street Love was more than simple romance but it expounded on the harsh realities of approval in love. This book shows how sometimes the people you ‘love’ are only that because you’re manipulated so much by the power of suggestion. Walter Dean Myers is a brilliant author and this is by far his most uniquely written story. I’ve recently read ‘Monster’ also written by Walter Dean Myers; indeed it was great, but this book blows it out of the water - so to speak.
Junice and Damien are like the modern day Romeo and Juliet. The characters all throughout the book resemble everyday average, normal existing people. There are no superheroes, or prophets, but normal people that teens like me can easily relate too. Teens should read this book, it appreciates poetry and love and compliments writers like Shakespeare.
Walter Dean Myers with this free verse poetry story-book certainly brings ‘purple cow’ into the writing world today. How many great stories are written in free verse poetry? My guess is that there aren’t very many. The format along with a story of love is my new favorite way to read and look at love stories. Just think, if every love story were a poem…
I agree with S.M about Junice and Damien’s love. Will their love become anything, is it true love? I believe this is book is as realistic as it gets and I would recommend it for most teens. “Do you follow your heart? Or do you run away?” Or is it love at all? This book is great and it definitely relates to my life. Love and fear are the greatest components of this book, my life, and any GREAT story.
READ IT !!!! If you haven’t…

[N.M., Schleider, 10th grade, ATC]

To me this book was surprising because at first I really didn’t think I could become interested in it, but as I progressed through the storyline that was no longer the case. I found that the book took a bit of deciphering but it only enhanced the experience. The entire story is told in the form of short free verse poems using many different styles of poetry and from different points of view.
The story also shows each character emotions more so than other books I have read. One specific stanza that I liked was the first one from the poem Junice washing dishes, she is nervous about Damien coming over and she is trying to emulate what is going to happen beforehand. This story directly relates to current students lives because many teens go through events like this in their life.
I agree with A.B.’s response in that at first the book was difficult to read. A question I have about the story is what inspired the author to write this novel. In my opinion having the entire story shown through poems must have been very hard to do but it shows the character emotion more in depth which is what I liked most about this book.

[C.F.]

I read “Street Love by Walter Dean Myers” and I was captivated by its realistic dramatics and its ability to tell a gripping story that related somewhat to my own life. It reminded me of a more street Romeo and Juliet. Junice’s mother went to jail for possession of drugs. My stepdad went to jail for the same thing but he didn’t get 25 years, seeing as how it is only his first offense. However, he is serving a full year, so I’m not going to see him again until February 4th, 2010. I could go visit him, but its only one per time, and of course my Mom wants to see him more and my little sister does too, so I just stay home with my little brother and make sure he’s okay. Kind of like how Junice is with Melissa.
I kind of wish that Junice and Melissa’s mom had gotten out instead of really having the full 25 years to serve. The dialog and the way the book was written was pretty interesting. I don’t really like reading books like that, but it was still a pretty good story. Some of the poems in the story were really good. I especially liked the one when Damien called Junice. It’s also at the beginning of the book; the first page. It’s really romantic. This is one of the main reasons I like this book so much, it was really romantic.

[R.L., Schleider, 10th Grade, ATC]

Walter Dean Myers has climbed to even greater heights with his latest work, STREET LOVE. A fluid mixture of poetry and prose, this sweeping book is filled with such gorgeous imagery, street-talk language and beatific, soul-stirring rhythm that just one read-through will surely take readers' breath away. A bittersweet, tell-it-like-it-is love story between two Harlem teens, STREET LOVE aims straight for the jugular and eloquently hits its mark.
Sixteen-year-old Damien has risen above his gang-infested environment and is on the track for success. He gets excellent grades, he's been accepted to Brown University, and his parents want nothing more than for him to get off the streets and make them proud, but Damien has other ideas: "My folks are laying lines on me like/They've written out the part and all/I got to do is get to a place called Start/And follow the road to fame and glory /A PhD in mucho buckology/Two point five kids and a quick apology/To the starving folks in East Ain't Got Nothing Ville/While I look down from Sugar Hill and tell/Myself how phat my program is." He has his eyes set on a different kind of future, possibly one with Junice the unknown, quiet beauty he's seen around the neighborhood.
Junice, however, lives a disparate life than what Damien is accustomed to. Her mother is in the Bedford Hills Prison for drug possession a 25-year sentence. Her sister, Melissa, is too young to take care of herself, and her grandmother, Miss Ruby, can barely remember her own name. Both her grandfather and father have long been out of the picture. In a word, she is slowly being eaten alive by her past and the pasts of the downtrodden before her. "No, it is all cycle and recycle/What the great-grandmother has done/Is to rut the earth for her children/What the grandmother has done/Is to widen the furrow for her children/What the mother has done/Is to square the pit/Deepening it for the ritual to come/And here I sit, grave deep among the/Waiting worms, staking my claim/As they stake theirs." As Damien begins wooing her and Junice however fierce her trepidation unwittingly gives her assent, the two struggles to fight their virtually non-existent odds in order to make a worthwhile life for themselves. At the novel's close, the outcome of their future together is left open-ended, although they have both sacrificed greatly to give it their best shot. "We will make it...I plan to survive."
STREET LOVE is nothing short of extraordinary. Myers's talent for turning words on end to spin phrase after powerful phrase is truly amazing his alliterations and cadenced pairing will roll off the tongue, beckoning to be read aloud. The virtually insurmountable weight of repression and despair that haunts inner-city living is evident on every page of this novel, yet there is a touch of the effervescent that sets this story afloat. The hope for a better life carries the characters through and bestows this otherwise grim tale with a glimmer of much-longed-for possibility. Now in my life this is not happening as in the book as two falling in love, but the hop of a better life does drive me through living and all the hard times that I’m sure to get. Like C.F. said “…its realistic dramatics and its ability to tell a gripping story that related somewhat to my own life.” I can understand for I think that many others can also relate to this story.

[A.L., Schlieder, 10th grade ATC]

Street Love by: Walter Myers
This book pulled me infrom the beginning. Mostly because of my love for poetry. It is like a more urban Romeo and Juliet and kind of like Romeo and Juliet. Junice and Damien come from two different worlds and have different principles and values. I love how the storyline was realistic. Just like in the real world, parents want their children to be with someone who is going ahead in life just like their child and someone who is at the same economic level as them. Just like how Damien’s parents wanted him to be with Roxanne. True love always prevails as Damien follows his heart and falls for Junice. Just like some of the other bloggers stated, I feel that Street Love really did illustrate emotions. I would request it for anyone who enjoys urban romance.

[Sharon Abraham]

Walter Dean Myers have greatly changed my point of view on things. I think that his books will continue to change others for the better. He should continue to write and motivate many others to read and write books. Street Love has done a wonderful job in making a perfect story.