Lockdown

( 22 )

Overview

A 2011 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.

It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then ...

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Lockdown

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More About This Book

Overview

A 2011 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book

When I first got to Progress, it freaked me out to be locked in a room and unable to get out. But after a while, when you got to thinking about it, you knew nobody could get in, either.

It seems as if the only progress that's going on at Progress juvenile facility is moving from juvy jail to real jail. Reese wants out early, but is he supposed to just sit back and let his friend Toon get jumped? Then Reese gets a second chance when he's picked for the work program at a senior citizens' home. He doesn't mean to keep messing up, but it's not so easy, at Progress or in life. One of the residents, Mr. Hooft, gives him a particularly hard time. If he can convince Mr. Hooft that he's a decent person, not a criminal, maybe he'll be able to convince himself.

Acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers offers an honest story about finding a way to make it without getting lost in the shuffle.

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Editorial Reviews

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché.”
The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

“A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché.”

Jessica Bruder
Lockdown isn't a straightforward morality tale. It's a keenly observed portrait of what it means to serve time, full of hard choices and shaky shots at redemption. Myers is a master of observing kids in tough places, from the 16-year-old charged with felony murder in Monster,…to the young soldier in his recent Sunrise Over Fallujah. What makes this new novel stand out is its vivid depiction of the jail ecosystem and the compromises it demands of those who are able to survive it.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Maurice “Reese” Anderson is sentenced to 38 months in Progress, a juvenile detention center in New York, for stealing prescription forms for use in a drug-dealing operation. After 22 months, Reese, now age 14, is assigned to a work-release program at Evergreen, an assisted-living center for seniors. There he meets racist Mr. Hooft, who lectures him on life’s hardships (having barely survived a Japanese war camp in Java), which causes Reese to reflect on his own choices. More than anything, he wants to be able to protect his siblings, who live with his drug-addicted mother, before they repeat his mistakes (“The thing was that I didn’t know if I was going to mess up again or not. I just didn’t know. I didn’t want to, but it looked like that’s all I did”). Reese faces impossible choices and pressures—should he cop to a crime he didn’t commit? stick out his neck for a fellow inmate and risk his own future? It’s a harrowing, believable portrait of how circumstances and bad decisions can grow to become nearly insurmountable obstacles with very high stakes. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)
VOYA
Fourteen-year-old Reese struggles to stay out of trouble while serving a sentence for theft in a juvenile detention facility. With only a few months remaining, he begins to think more seriously about what comes next. Participating in a work-release program in a nursing home, Reese experiences honest work and meets people from varied backgrounds. In particular is Mr. Hooft, a cranky old Dutchman who survived a Japanese POW camp as a child yet is withering away in the nursing home. Initially he has nothing but contempt for Reese, but a grudging respect grows over time. Reese begins to do the right thing. He protects a weaker inmate from a bully and promises to help his little sister get to college. Little by little, one positive leads to another. What makes Reese interesting is his balancing act between the positives and negatives in his life. Skilled at fighting and surviving amid violence, Reese recognizes that it is not the path to success. Can he leave the fighting and aggression behind? Myers crates a nuanced, realistic portrait of a teen dealing with incarceration and violence. He is a real teen trying to repair a complicated situation, and Myers gets his voice just right. Most teens do not have to deal with incarceration, yet they do face dilemmas, wrestle with behavior, and struggle to make wise and ethical choices. Many will recognize themselves in Reese and cheer him on as he struggles to create change in his life. Reviewer: Amy Fiske
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—Maurice (Reese) Anderson, 14, stole prescription pads to make easy money for his family. Now he's serving time in a detention center. Working at a nursing home, he meets Mr. Hooft, who tells him that he doesn't like colored people or criminals. An antagonistic relationship quickly develops between them as Mr. Hooft verbally attacks the teen each time he attempts to carry out his duties. But there is greater trouble for Reese back at Progress; his impulsive behavior has left him at odds with the lead guard and the newly arrived gang leader. Now he must control his volatile and sometimes violent behavior when he is provoked as he awaits his appearance before the parole board. His fellow detainees have a wide variety of backgrounds, each offering a thread of connection to readers. Returning to common themes of justice, free will, and consequence, Myers again explores the mind of a young man struggling to survive the streets of Harlem. This latest work, while well written, doesn't achieve the emotional resonance of Paul Volponi's similar Rikers High (Viking, 2010). The characters feel static, and the depictions of the justice system and racial tensions will be familiar to many of Myers's readers. Hooft's incarceration in the Japanese camps during World War II is a somewhat unexpected revelation, but needs more historical background. Though not the author's most powerful work, this book has an audience waiting for it and should be purchased for most collections.—Chris Shoemaker, New York Public Library
Kirkus Reviews
Fourteen-year-old Reese Anderson has already spent 22 months at the oxymoronically named Progress Center, and his prison world is delineated in painstaking detail-eternal stasis, a non-life, ever vulnerable to random violence and the threat of detention, added time and being sent upstate. The claustrophobia felt by this likable kid trapped in a cruel environment is masterfully evoked-a cell measuring 93 inches by 93 inches, the outside world observed from one closed-tight window overlooking a fence with barbed wire and relationships based on mistrust and a hierarchy of fear. As in Monster (1999), Myers is interested in first steps-how a person goes from innocence to incarceration and the difficulty, once in the prison system, of getting out and staying out. He offers no easy answers, but roots salvation in a few helping hands along the way and in personal moral decisions; Reese comes to realize that home and the streets are not where it's at: "I know I got to start with me." (Fiction. 12 & up)
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché.”
Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)
“Myers creates a nuanced, realistic portrait of a teen dealing with incarceration and violence. Myers gets his voice just right.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
“A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)
“A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"A moving tale of a kid who may have made a mistake but who still deserves the modest future he seeks. Refreshingly avoids cliché."
Elizabeth Self
Maurice Anderson, or Reese, is 14 years old and serving time at Progress Center, a juvenile detention facility. He tries to keep himself out of trouble there, but the antics of several other inmates, who prey on a younger, weaker boy, cause him to lash out at them. As part of a work-release program, Reese begins visiting curmudgeonly Mr. Hooft at Evergreen, a facility for senior citizens. There, Reese learns both how to control his reactions to those who would provoke him and a strategy for life, one that will help him find his place outside Progress and the dangers of his own neighborhood and old life. Lockdown is the story of one boy's efforts to reconcile his fight for life with his need to stay out of the system. Reviewer: Elizabeth Self
Children's Literature
Reese Anderson is serving time in a juvenile detention center for something he most definitely did. He is serving his time with appropriate behavior and is now doing a work release program in preparation for an attempt at early release. But another young detainee is being bullied and Reese is not willing to let that happen. The center is a tough, gritty place with guards who look the other way and a code that does not allow Reese to tell them the truth. While on work release at a nursing home, Reese becomes an assistant to Mr. Hooft, an elderly Dutch immigrant who had been held in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. Through that relationship, Reese is able to better understand imprisonment, the kind someone does to you, and the kind that you do to yourself. When NYC detectives drag Reese down to the police station, he realizes that he is now being accused of doing something he did not do and the decision he has to make has serious consequences for his future. Reese is caught in a seemingly impossible situation where it is the thought of his kid sister that keeps him going, gives him a new purpose, and helps him see a possible life stretching before him. This novel tells the hard story of getting caught and what it takes to get out of the grim cycle of recidivism. Reese is a smart kid with a tough life but a moral center; readers cannot help but cheer him on. There is adult language and realistic violence. Reviewer: Janis Flint-Ferguson
School Library Journal
Gr 8–11—Reese Anderson, 14, is serving three years at Progress Center for stealing prescription pads for a neighborhood drug dealer in Walter Dean Myers's realistic, moving novel (Amistad, 2010). The teen focuses on keeping his nose clean so he can get out early and be there for his younger sister. But the detention system is like a "basket of crabs"—when one tries to get out, the others pull him back in. Reese's desire to stay out of trouble conflicts with his instinct to defend a younger inmate. His record of fighting threatens his involvement in a work release program at Evergreen, an elder care facility where he is assigned to Mr. Hooft. The older man doesn't like "colored people" or criminals, so he is wary of Reese. Over time, though, they begin to trust each other as Mr. Hooft opens up about his experiences in the Dutch East Indies during World War II. Meanwhile, Reese is implicated in a drug overdose linked back to those prescription pads, and he faces up to 20 years in jail. The teen's future is uncertain, but he wants to choose a better path for himself. J. D. Jackson convincingly captures Reese's combination of bravado, frustration, and fear. Supporting characters are all compellingly portrayed, from menacing Progress guards to ethnically diverse inmates. Jackson's rendition of Mr. Hooft is a standout.—Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061214820
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 12/27/2011
  • Pages: 272
  • Sales rank: 1429
  • Age range: 12 - 17 Years
  • Product dimensions: 5.20 (w) x 7.10 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Walter Dean Myers is the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award, the current National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, and inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers has received every single major award in the field of children's literature. He is the author of two Newbery Honor Books and five Coretta Scott King Awardees. He is the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and is a three-time National Book Award Finalist as well as the first-ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was the 2010 United States nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and is considered one of the preeminent writers for young people. Walter lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 22 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(8)

4 Star

(8)

3 Star

(3)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(3)
See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 23 Customer Reviews

  • Posted Fri Jan 21 00:00:00 EST 2011

    ...

    i absulutely loved this book i am 12... it had language if thats an issue for u... u really get into the characters. i recomend this to anyone with a free hour or to to read. :)

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Mon Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2012

    I rate the book a 4. I thought it was a great book for a 13 year

    I rate the book a 4. I thought it was a great book for a 13 year old. If you can handle the bad language and be mature then you are going to like this book. Lockdown is about juvenile prisoners who are try to to fix there live. There are some hard times for the main character Reese. Reese gets into trouble with some other inmates. Reese also is getting in some more trouble with the crime that got him in jail. You will be able to see what Reese goes through and the changes he makes in jail.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Tue Mar 19 00:00:00 EDT 2013

    good book

    Gooodbook

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  • Posted Mon Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2012

    I Also Recommend:

    Dope Sick
    Something to Die For
    Two the Hard Way
    A Family Sin
    The Bully (Bluford High Series #5)

    this book is amazing because it teaches me the bacis of going th

    this book is amazing because it teaches me the bacis of going through everyday life. i really want everybody out there to read this book because its a very good book. other books i have red was nothing compared to this book no books!!!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted Thu Dec 29 00:00:00 EST 2011

    Wow.

    Intense and knolegable. Gives you a helpful reason.

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted Sat May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2010

    I Also Recommend:

    Go Ask Alice

    Everyone needs a role model

    Even kids in trouble and Reese just might be it. He's incarcerated in Progress Center, a lockdown facility for juvenile offenders. But, Reese wants a better life for himself and his little sister, Icy.

    To do that, he's got to stay out of fights and be a model prisoner. The administrator of Progress has some faith in him. Reese is given a work detail as an orderly in a senior center, where he meets Mr. Hooft, who immediately tells Reese a) he doesn't like him and b) he has killed people in his past life.

    But, as time goes on, Reese learns Mr. Hooft's story and realizes internment in a Japanese prison camp is far worse than the life he's had. Hooft teaches the young man lessons Reese's father never did.

    This is a strongly written juvenile story with an edge that can cut to the quick. Having done a bit of research on Myers, I've learned that he's a strong advocate for juveniles and has books have gotten many non-readers interested in literature. I'd strongly recommend this book for kids in trouble or those who are even contemplating it.

    Rebecca Kyle, May 2010

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    Posted Tue Feb 22 00:00:00 EST 2011

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