50books_poc | A recommendation.

I've just been watching the community, and I got inspired to make a recommendation. This is a young adult novel from 2000. It's called Sunday You Learn How to Box, by Bil Wright.

Here's a link to amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Sunday-You-Learn-How-Box/dp/B000ENBPYI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237129970&sr=1-1

This is about a black adolescent boy who lives with his mother and his abusive stepfather. The reason for the title is that the boy is effeminate (and probably gay) and this is unacceptable to his mother. She decides that his stepfather will make a man out of him by teaching him how to box after church, on Sundays. The boxing sessions are just a chance for the stepfather to abuse him, and the mother does nothing to defend her son! She thinks she's helping him with this nonsense.

Also, the boy has a crush on a sort of gangster teenager in his apartment complex, and instead of this older boy being disgusted or angry about it, he realizes that the younger boy needs a protector, and he befriends and protects him, in his clumsy gruff way.

This book is so amazing because it covers so many issues at once, and you end up feeling so deeply for the protagonist. I give it FIVE STARS *****.

I also remember that in the edition I read, the author had put some notes in the back of the book including correspondence he'd received from young people who'd read it. Note: His name really is spelled Bil.