Kindness For Weakness

Kindness For Weakness

YA fiction
While Shawn Goodman's Kindness For Weakness is quite
appropriately pegged as YA, I also see it as an important read for
regular adults. Goodman has worked in juvenile justice facilities.
The man knows what he's talking about. The world he introduces
readers to is grim, terrifying, and all too real.
James sleeps on a sofa in a one bedroom apartment, waking up to
verbal and often physical abuse from his mother's drug addict
boyfriend, Ron. His mother, a chain smoking shadow of her former self,
takes Ron's side. His older brother, Louis, moved out when Ron moved
in. James misses him terribly.
Not surprisingly, when Louis invites him to work for him, James
jumps at the opportunity. Maybe they can regain their previously
close relationship. Sure they're pushing drugs. But it doesn't seem
to hard until the police bust James while Louis departs, leaving him
to take the fall.
James ends up in the dreaded Thomas C. Mortan Residential
Center, a place where physical and psychologic abuse run rampant,
gestures of kindness are perceived of as acts of weakness, and eighty-
four percent of the kids who make their way out are doomed to return.
Read it and get angry, very angry. It'll take a lot of us to get kids
like James (who was making what seemed like a reasonable choice) to
get out of a truly Hellish situation.
I can't wait to get my hands on Goodman's previous book,
Something Called Hope.
On a personal note, I celebrated my 57th birthday September 21 which
was a perfect Indian summer Sunday. I got what I wanted the most:
the chance to spend time with my children. I hung out with Amber and
Brian after church. Katie joined Adam, the hubby, and me for supper:
soup and grilled cheese sandwiched, mine with golden sun tomatoes. :)
A great big shout out goes out to all who work to get real justice and
hope for kids who are often condemned by poverty and negligence before
they commit even a misdemeanor.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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