I feel selfish for saying im a privlidged highschooler who was born in a middle class home. The purpose of a book is to be able to relate with the characters which I was unable to not because I'm who I am but how the characters were made out (yes I know it's non-fiction). I couldn't focus on a lot because they tried to make us relate to situations I've never been or ever will be in. Though I found the whole highschool and college part of it entertaining, I moaned when it went to some "I did a crime, oops how bad of me" scene. It's just constant "oh I was lucky here, oh I was lucky there" which gives a freshman like me the wrong ideas of what highschool should be like. I'll cut some slack since it was the 80's but really I got tired of the whole "gang violence was terrible" by pg. 2 Really I give it more a 1.5 out of 5 stars but 2 was the only option.

One thing I bet a lot of you never knew THERES A MOVIE FOR THIS BOOK!

When this book was released I was a junior in high school and my stepmother bought this for me. It definitely made me more determined to work through trials during the most difficult period of my life. These young men had a dream and worked towards it, they uplifted each other, and overcame circumstance. It's a powerful testimony.

This book was so inspirational, I love all of it's content the ups and the downs and then the end results. I plan to pass out theses books to a few family members that wants to goof off in school in hopes to spark something inside of them and to keep them motivated. If this book did not move you, then you are just numb and need one of the doctors to check your pulse to see if you are dead mainly in the brain. Please this book is worth every dime and please pass it on and let it touch someone else. BRAVO!!!!

The only reason I got it was for my high school summer HW. It is ok...but it's too bland and boring. The plot is way too common which makes it hard for you to feel the moments in the book. The first three chapters really wasted my time. They could have been put in 1 chapter because the 3 chapters talk about the same thing... Mom got pregnant young or mom has drug addictions, dad left, stabbings, drug dealers, blah blah blah. You basically read the whole first chapter 3 times... I get it ok? The book is indeed inspirational but it wasn't good enough to make me want to read more. In fact, for my summer HW, I got so bored out by the book that I only read the first 20 pages and did my reading assignment. I say that a book like this should at least be put for free.

This book was very inspirational

I'm not a reading type of girl but once I started reading this book, I was instantly pulled in. I had to finish it!