A Middle-Grade Debut Novel
You Won’t Want To Put Down
- Author: David Barclay Moore
- Hardcover: 304 Knopf Books for Young Readers (September 19, 2017)
- Paperback: 304 Yearling; Reprint edition (January 8, 2019)
Ages: 10 – 13
This story is an amazing glimpse into the life of Wallace “Lolly” Rachpaul, an angry boy who is attempting to work through the death of his older brother. What makes this even more difficult is that he is living in a housing project in Harlem. He and his family are surrounded by all sorts of influences that can easily pull a person into a hard life.
The characters that encircle Lolly are diverse and very believable. His friends say that Lolly has two mothers:
his birth mother and her good friend, a toy-store security guard named Yvonne. Yvonne has tried to help Lolly recover from the loss of his brother by providing him with Lego’s from the store where she works, something she knows he loves to build with.
Jermaine, the older brother who’s death the family is grieving, lost his life to the drug-hustling underworld of Harlem. A life he warns Lolly to absolutely stay away from.
Unique People Who Feel Real Are
- Lolly’s best friend Vega, who is from the Dominican Republic,
- Mr. Ali, a social worker with a story of his own and,
- Big Rose, a girl who doesn’t like being called that, but due to her size and unusual behavior that’s what kids call her,
- And Lolly’s father makes a few appearances in the book to give the reader a little more insight.
My Thoughts
What Concerned Me: The content might be a little advanced for a ten-year-old. Parents, you might want to read this book ahead of your child or with your child.
What I Liked Most:
This novel covers a myriad of things as it depicts the life of a 12-year-old boy in a New York housing project.
What Kept Me Turning Pages:
- The story and the well-developed characters kept me reading
- My curiosity to find more out about, Big Rose, who was bullied daily.
- My desire to learn more about living in Harlem
This is an eye-opening book that I don’t think you’ll want to miss, even as an adult.
I highly recommend it.
David Barclay Moore was born and raised working class in Missouri. Throughout his
adolescent years, David kept mainly to himself and read too many novels and comic books.
After studying creative writing at Iowa State University, film at Howard University in
Washington, DC and language studies at L’Universite de Montpellier in France, David moved
to New York City on May 31, 1995. He had $500 in his pocket and a place to stay for two weeks.
Over the years in New York, he has worked in different creative and writing capacities with:
Sony StudiOne, DreamWorks TV, Barbra Streisand’s Barwood Films and @radical.media,
among others.
His literary work is represented in New York by the Faith Childs Literary Agency.
David Barclay Moore is constantly trying to see the world differently.
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