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More About This Book

Overview

Jimmy and Kevin could really use a guide to life.

Their activities almost land them in juvenile detention until Duke employs them in his Harlem barbershop. Duke has rules for everything. But is he offering good advice or just more aggravation?

In the groundbreaking tradition of the award-winning Monster and Bad Boy: A Memoir, Walter Dean Myers fashions a complex, layered novel about the rules for success. Handbook for Boys is the book that he wishes he could have read while growing up. It is also the book young people need to read today.

Ages 10+

Sixteen-year-old Jimmy, on probation for assault, talks about life with three old men in a Harlem barbershop and hears about the tools he can use to get what he wants.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
"Returning to the setting for his 145th Street: Short Stories, the author juxtaposes a sketch of the 16-year-old narrator's home life with nuggets of wisdom delivered by the neighborhood barber with wit and tact," according to PW. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
When Jimmy and Kevin find themselves before the judge, they are willing to do anything rather than go to a youth facility, even work every day at Duke's Barbershop in Harlem. Jimmy, though, didn't know this community mentor program would mean he had to listen to the ramblings of the men who gathered each day at Duke's, even if they weren't getting a hair cut. Soon Jimmy realizes the talk isn't idle reminiscing of senile men, but lessons for a successful life. Too bad they haven't been written in a handbook. Kevin seems to need one. And above all, Jimmy hopes his friend can stay out of more trouble as Jimmy himself hopes to do, but it doesn't seem that Kevin will make the right choices. The lessons in this novel are excellent, and teachers should be aware of the tastefully handled, but mature themes used in presenting the message. 2002, HarperCollins Publishers, 179 pp.,
— Lu Ann Brobst Staheli
More Reviews (5) Fewer Reviews
Children's Literature
Myers does it again with another realistic look at African-American culture and the difficulties that face us all in this new "please yourself" society. Growing up gets tougher every year. A handbook on how to stay out of trouble and be successful would be nice and make things easier, but there is not one, or is there. Jimmy is charged with assault on a classmate but instead of serving the six months in a youth facility he is to perform community service at Duke Wilson's barbershop. Jimmy comes in daily after school with another youth, Kevin, who is working for a college scholarship. They listen to the ever-critical advice from Duke. Throughout the story Mr. M. Jimmy's anger and reluctance slowly fade and eventually this leads him to better understand life as well as himself. He soon discovers that lessons are better learned from the mistakes of others rather than yourself if possible. The "real" dialog and thoughts of Jimmy, as the narrator, makes the book easily accessible to even the most reluctant reader. This book is certainly, as Myers says in his forward, "a jumping-off point for many interesting conversations about success." 2002, HarperCollins Publishers,
— Christina Burbage
KLIATT
To quote KLIATT's May 2002 review of the hardcover edition: In his award-winning YA novel Monster, Myers depicted a young man in trouble with the law; here, he focuses on how teenaged boys can keep out of trouble. Sixteen-year-old Jimmy has a temper, and when he viciously beats up a Harlem classmate he is charged with assault. Instead of being assigned to a youth facility, however, Jimmy accepts the offer of Duke, a local barbershop owner, to supervise him in a community-mentoring program. Duke is a wise and caring older man, and he and his cronies Mister M and Cap attempt to impart their knowledge of how to get along in the world to Jimmy and another troubled teen, Kevin, as the two boys clean the barbershop each day after school. The shop customers, from a flashy dealer to an addicted woman to characters who blame others for all their difficulties, provide fodder for the men's lectures on taking responsibility for oneself, making good choices, having a plan for success, and following through. The path isn't always smooth, but Jimmy gradually begins to see life in a different way. This book is meant to begin discussions, but will its intended audience find it too preachy? I hope not. It's told from Jimmy's viewpoint, which helps, and there is enough storyline and anecdotes arising from characters that the good advice here should go down relatively easily. The older men are realistically sardonic, just as Jimmy is believably rebellious. Certainly a great choice for counselors working with teens like Jimmy, and as a spark for debates. A novel that will get readers thinking. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, HarperTrophy,Amistad, 212p.,
— Paula Rohrlick
VOYA
Myers's latest work is intended to be a guide for young males, especially African Americans, as they encounter the obstacles and pressures of adolescence. Through the novel's easy-going format, young readers can readily identify some concerns of today's young men. Jimmy and Kevin are two teenagers who have the good luck to be mentored by Duke, the all-knowing owner of the oldest barbershop in Harlem. Duke has arranged for juvenile justice to let the boys work for him in his barbershop after school instead of going to a juvenile detention facility. Jimmy had been in a fight and charged with unlawful assault, whereas Kevin had been arrested for smoking marijuana. Duke's intervention allows the boys to stay out of jail if they live up to the agreement. The boys sweep and clean the barbershop while reluctantly listening to Duke and two other elderly men express their opinions about the people in the neighborhood. Duke and his fellow philosophers tease, question, and warn Jimmy and Kevin about letting their lives slip away because of making poor choices. Duke's words have a profound effect on both boys when Kevin ends up in jail. Myers presents the real-life pitfalls of young people in clear and concise language. Duke's character gently guides the boys to think beyond the present to look for better solutions to some of life's problems. While a little too leisurely in tone for older readers, this book should be very helpful to middle school students. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2002, HarperCollins, 192p,
— Brenda Moses-Allen <%ISBN%>006029146X
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Myers prefaces his new novel with an explanation of his belief that adult mentors can help teens choose positive paths in their lives. The book begins with a judge giving 16-year-old Jimmy the option of being assigned to a juvenile facility for six months for assaulting a classmate or to a community-mentoring program. Of course, he chooses the latter and begins his relationship with Duke Wilson, the owner of a neighborhood barbershop where he will work every day after school. Duke is an older man who, with several of his cronies, tries to give Jimmy and Kevin (another troubled youth) advice about the decisions and paths they will choose as they travel through life. This is imparted by using characters who visit the shop as good or bad examples of people who think independently, who take responsibility for their actions, who are on drugs, or who believe they can solve their own problems. Although the conversations provide valuable life lessons, they come across as didactic and preachy. Much more realistic are the one-on-one scenes between Jimmy and other characters, like his mother and, particularly, his contemporaries. The teen's perspective is the vehicle that carries the story and by book's end readers know he will make it while Kevin has more to learn. Marketed as a work of fiction, the book becomes transparent; as a handbook, it could touch many lives.-Joanne K. Cecere, Monroe-Woodbury High School, Central Valley, NY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
In a self-help treatise in the guise of a novel, Myers's (Bad Boy, 2001, etc.) passion and concern for adolescent boys infuses the material and gives it a heartfelt urgency. He's eager to teach youngsters how to make the right decisions so that they can avoid the pitfalls of modern life and become productive members of society. With that aim in mind, he gives his readers three rules for achievement: "Find out what you mean by success . . . find out what work is needed to get there . . . go on and do the work." The story itself is slight: after being arrested for injuring a classmate in a schoolyard fight, an unexceptional child named Jimmy must work for an upright elder, a right-thinking street-corner philosophizer, and the owner of a local mecca-a barbershop in Harlem. Everyone who comes into Duke's barbershop relates a story of victimhood or success-fodder for discussion and a moral. At first, Jimmy finds Duke and his endless life lessons insufferable-and it must be said that the lack of dramatic tension and structure of personal story followed by analysis does grow tedious-but over time the man's genuine decency (and the rightness of his position) makes its mark. Finally, Jimmy sees firsthand how a poorly thought-out choice can have a catastrophic impact on a person's future, and begins to make better judgments in his own life. Although compositionally flawed, this has such important things to say to adolescent boys that it deserves a wide audience. (Fiction. 10-15)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780064409308
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 3/13/2003
  • Edition description: REPRINT
  • Pages: 224
  • Sales rank: 220,466
  • Age range: 10 - 14 Years
  • Lexile: 740L (what's this?)
  • Series: Amistad Series
  • Product dimensions: 4.18 (w) x 6.75 (h) x 0.56 (d)

Meet the Author

Walter Dean Myers is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, New York Times bestselling author of Monster, and winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award. The critically acclaimed author of Kick, Lockdown, Dope Sick, Game, Street Love, The Autobiography of My Dead Brother, Handbook for Boys, and Bad Boy, he is considered one of the preeminent writers for children. Walter's novel shooter is the inspiration for the film Case 219.

His latest picture-book collaboration with his son, Christopher Myers, We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart, is a love letter to the United States that reimagines what it means to be an American. Visit www.who-is-america.com to find out more!

Walter lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.

Read an Excerpt

Handbook for Boys
A Novel

Chapter One

Duke's Place

The barbershop was on 145th Street, just off Seventh Avenue. They call it Duke's Place, but me and Kevin call it the Torture Chamber. Some people said that it was the oldest barbershop in the neighborhood, maybe even the oldest in Harlem. When I got there, I looked up at the wall clock and saw that it was three twenty-nine. I was early by one minute. Duke, who owned the place, was giving a guy a haircut. Mister M and Cap, the regular crew of old dudes, were already there. Cap was sitting in his favorite chair sipping on cold coffee like he always did. Mister M was reading El Diario, a Spanish newspaper. Cap took his pocket watch out and checked the time and then gave me a mean look. I knew he was glad when I was late so he could get on my case. That was just the way the guy was made. He had probably been the meanest baby in the nursery.

"Hey, looka here." Mister M looked up from his newspaper. "They got this guy down in Georgia who's going to give away fifty million dollars. Man, some people just don't know what to do with themselves."

"What would you do with the money, Duke?" Cap asked.

Duke put the finishing touches on his customer's fade, then held up a mirror so the man could see how his haircut had come out.

"I'd put the money in the bank, down in the safe deposit vault," Duke said. "And maybe once a month I'd go visit it. Rub some all over myself till I got satisfied, then I'd put it all back until the next visit."

"Think you would move away from Harlem?" Cap asked. "Maybe go down to Florida or someplace like that?"

"You taking me out ofHarlem would be like taking a fish out of water," Duke said. "I've got this place in my blood."

He took the money for the haircut and put it in the cash register.

"See you next month," he called after the customer.

"Wasn't that the guy who used to own the grocery store on Eighth Avenue?" Cap asked as the door closed.

"Yeah," Duke said, cleaning off his barbering tools. "Bill McCormick used to have that little piece of store on the corner until he started spending more time at the racetrack than he spent in his store."

Just then the door flew open and Kevin, sweating and puffing, came rushing in.

"Am I late?" Kevin asked, looking up at the clock that read three thirty-three.

"It depends," Duke said, "on whether you mean for today or for tomorrow. You're late for today, but you got a real good jump on tomorrow."

"Duke, you're wasting your money on this boy," Cap said as Kevin took off his jacket. "Your deal with him is that he's going to work for you after school for two years and you're going to pay his first two years of college, is that right?"

"That's right," Duke said.

"If he can't even tell time, how's he going to make it all the way through college?"

"Maybe he's fixing to learn how to tell time when he reaches college," Mister M said. "Even this ten-year-old boy knows how to tell time. What's your name again, boy?"

"My name is Jimmy, and I'm sixteen, not ten," I said.

"You got to keep them straight," Cap said. "Jimmy here's the young one. He's sixteen, and he's on parole from Alcatraz, or some place like that. Kevin is seventeen, and he's the one Duke is paying to get out of town."

Mister M cracked up on that. He's got this high laugh, and he slapped his leg like he was getting a big kick out of it. It wasn't funny to me. I started to say something, but when I looked over at Duke, he was shaking his head like he was disgusted, so I just kept my mouth shut and started dusting around the plants in the window. By this time Kevin had grabbed a broom and started sweeping the floor.

That's why me and Kevin call the place the Torture Chamber. Duke lets his old-time friends hang around all the time and stay on our cases.

I guess they were okay in their way, but they didn't understand what being young was all about. Maybe they knew once, but they had definitely forgotten somewhere along the way.

Duke was tall and thin and always stood up straight even though he was sixty-eight years old. He told us he had gone to Storer, a black college in West Virginia, to study biology but ended up taking over his father's barbershop business.

"When I was coming up, you had to take what opportunities you could find," Duke was always saying.

I had heard about Duke's studying biology at least a hundred times. That's where he had met his wife, Janice. She had opened a beauty school on 125th Street that she ran for a whole bunch of years. When she died three years ago, Duke sold the school and said he was going to use the money to send some kids to college. Kevin was supposed to be the first, and Duke said if I finished high school I might be the second. The first thing I needed to do was to finish the six months on probation so I wouldn't have to go to a youth house.

They called Edward Mills "Cap" because he used to work in the courts as a guard and always talked about all the criminals he had seen. Cap was about the same age as Duke. He and Duke met when they were playing basketball in a tournament back in the olden days...

Handbook for Boys
A Novel. Copyright © by Walter Myers. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Customer Reviews

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( 17 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 17 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2011

    read it man! Its good!

    In Harlem, New York,a young fictional boy named Jimmy is convicted of assaulting another boy at school. He is about to head of to jail when an old man named Duke steps in.He says he can let Jimmy have a job at his barber shop if they will let jimmy get out of going to jail.Every day Jimmy and kevin (another delinquent)clean up the shop, while duke and his friends lecture them how to make good descicions.
    I wood definetley recomend this book for boys around the ages of middle school through highschool, because it could anser questions those boys have about making good descicions.Although this book is slightly boring, it was an easy and enjoyable read, and sends a good message about keeping out of trouble.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 16, 2010

    CHECK IT OUT!

    What a book! Never really thought that Handbook for Boys by Walter Dean Myers was going to be a book with a lot of thinking to it but as well enjoyful. Let us start off talking about the characters of the book. The main characters that I would say that made up this book was a teenage boy name Jimmy Lynch who was 16 years old. Along with him was a barber name Duke who was already a man of his age who knew plenty to know about life. So what about these characters? Well Jimmy is a boy who has been having trouble thinking about his life in the streets of Harlem, New York and in school. Along with this reason, Jimmy made some bad choices towards another kid which then leads for him to go towards Duke. Now, Duke is just no barber. Like I stated before, Duke is a man who knows plenty of life. With this fact of him, the reason why Jimmy went to Duke is because Duke is a person who takes young boys like Jimmy to try to make them do some changes in their lives. In other words Duke has a program of his own called community mentoring program. The way how this is going to happen is that Jimmy has to go to the barbershop everyday after school and he has to stay at the barbershop and follow some of Dukes orders for six months. It would have to be either that or he would have to go to facility for six months. Jimmy decided to go for Dukes program. Now the question to this is, how will an old man change this young boy who is nearly a man to get some discipline into his mind and make him into a successful human? Matter of fact, will Jimmy Lynch change throughout this book?
    Moving on now, I really thought that this book was a great book for me. The reason I say this is because as I was reading along the book and reading along the conversations Duke was having with Jimmy about life and things like that, I myself was also learning about how important every choice we make in life is important. I really though that the number one theme of this book is the quote that my principal loves to say every morning after his morning announcements. That quote is "The choices you make today, shape your world tomorrow." This is why I think this was such a great book. Some examples from the book is when a man comes into the barbershop and starts speaking about how everyone is entitled to three meals a day and a place to live on or sleep on. As this man was speaking to Duke about this situation, the man said that people should have three meals a day and a place to live only if they get to get it themselves by finding every little help they need in order to get those three meals and that place to live. The man was talking about this because some poor man asked him if he had some spare change that he can get. Only thing is that the poor man did not like the fourteen cents that he received from the man. Instead of keeping them he threw them to the ground and left. This is what made the man at the barber shop get mad and realize that there are only certain people in the world that can deserve what they want if they make good choices about the choices they decide to make. This is why he stated that people who make good choices by getting what they want by them doing some work and not wanting others to do it for them will get what they want. Its all on the choices they decide to make. Though I then was realizing that there is people who sometimes get some little help but then they don't accept it because it is not the help they wanted or were looking for. The reason would be b

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 28, 2007

    A reviewer

    In Handbook for Boys, Kevin and Jimmy have lots of talks with Duke and the Guys at the barbershop. While Kevin and Jimmy are working in the barbershop, they learn lots of things that they are going to experience in their life. I think that it was a great book for mostly boys to read because males can relate to it more than females can relate to it. I¿m not saying that girls shouldn¿t read it, but it¿s just that type of book. I actually learned about some things in this book also that can help me. One of those things that I learned is that I shouldn't do drugs because it could really mess me up in life. There was this one character in this book that had a great life going for her, but she got messed up after meeting this one guy. What she didn't know about this guy is that he was a big time drug dealer. She didn't get to know him before she did something with him and that really messed up her life.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 12, 2007

    Hand Book For Boys: a Reveiw

    Handbook For boys by Walter Dean Myers was a book where a 16 year old boy named Jimmy is on probation for assalt. An old man named Duke and his friends names Cap and Mister M took him into a program where they basically take people's stories and ask Jimmy how they could of changed it, can change it, and why or how or why not they did. There are huge events that happen but sadly I would spoil the story if Isaid them, so you'll just have to read to find out.But I liked this story because it demonstrates how you really would be temped by drugs and how to truly be above them, with out having to hold back.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 31, 2007

    Good Book

    I thought the Handbook for Boys was a good book because the book kept you wondering what was going to happen next and the events in this book were exciting also this book did have some things I didn¿t like. One was that once the problem was solved they didn¿t let you know how it got solved. In ranking from 1-10 I would give this book an 8 out of 10.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 26, 2012

    The best bk evah

    I wove ths bk

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 9, 2012

    How do girls get sexual boners?

    Red

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  • Posted September 12, 2011

    What

    Stupid

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 5, 2011

    the book

    it is sure to be good

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 31, 2007

    Not really exited for this book!!!

    I really dint like this book, I thought that Handbook for boys meant secrets about boys put NO, it was about this boys like Jimmy just getting in trouble and he works at this Barber shop and the one how solves his problems is Duke, the owner of the Barber shop, his boss.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 7, 2007

    A reviewer

    This novel was so-so for me. It wasn't the best thing I have ever read, but it wasn't horrible. It was a bit boring in spots, but had a few good life lessons for people. It would have been better if maybe it wasn't just told to them. I probably won't remember much about this book before long, but it was still somewhat enjoyable.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 16, 2007

    Boring book

    This book was very boring because it wasn't even a good read! All the book was about is Duke's lessons in life. NO action, no nothing.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 3, 2002

    Need This Advice? It's here on the surface...

    Directed as a kind of bibliotherapy to a certain group of readers, this book was not really a complex and layered novel, but still a good enough read. Watching the comings and goings in a Harlem barbershop as two adjudicated youths (Jimmy and Kevin) serve their time on the job and their mentor (Duke) tries to impart a few basic life skills in a compassionate way framed a good-enough plot with an ulterior motive. The story was spoiled for me by the advice giving Duke. Though he was doing all right with the dispensing of educative wisdom to the boys, the 'novel' didn't amount to more than a vehicle for Duke's teachings.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 11, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 6, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 6, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 19, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

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