Miracle's Boys | 
 enlarge | Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Publisher: Puffin
Category: Book
List Price: $5.99
Buy New: $1.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 494465
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4
ISBN: 0142406023
EAN: 9780142406021
ASIN: 0142406023
Publication Date: June 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
"Sometimes I feel like our life is one big work of art--it's everything" [Charlie] stared down at his bare feet. "And nothing." "This isn't art," I said. "It's our block! It's our life." If only, if only... Life is full of poignant hypotheticals for Ty'ree, Charlie, and Lafayette, three brothers who are raising themselves after they lost their father to a drowning accident and their mother to diabetes. Each boy deals with his grief in his own way: the oldest, Ty'ree, has given up his dreams of college to work full time to support the others. Charlie is slipping into a life of crime, and is just back, angry and alienated, from two years at a correctional facility. Lafayette, the youngest brother, has retreated inward, avoiding his friends and blaming himself for his mother's death. These three are struggling against pretty large odds, but "brother to brother to brother," they can survive. Jacqueline Woodson writes with a sure hand and true understanding of the complexity and depth of young people's lives. Winner of many awards for her novels, including two Coretta Scott King Honors (for From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun and I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This), she tells a captivating, honest story. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Product Description
Lafayette would do anything to have things back the way they used to beback before their parents died and back before his brother Charlie changed so much. But things have changed and all he can do now is ask why.... Why did Mama have to die? Why does Charlie hate him so much? And how are the three brothersMiracles boyssupposed to survive when so much seems to be stacked against them?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 Complete Crap October 14, 2008
I read this book when it came out awhile back and found it to be far and away one of the worst stories I could fathom, primarily because we discover that the older brother who cares for his younger brothers passed on an golden opportunity to study at MIT while his brothers were looked after by a wealthy relative. Instead, he decides to take a crummy job in a ghetto slum and raise his brothers in poverty because of a deep seated conviction on his part that ghetto street trash is the sort of people he and his brothers are meant to be. Such an exposition made me despise this character and left me even more disgusted at the end of the book when he STILL has not seized on this potential and STILL accepts a life of self-imposed failure. What is the message here, Ms. Woodson? That a life of shame, guilt, failure, suffering, pain, disillusionment, poverty, and self-hatred is somehow morally superior to a life of success, achievement, happiness, wealth, prosperity, and personal satisfaction? That Woodson has won the Coretta Scott King Author Award reaffirms my belief that most critics think there is a direct correlation between suffering and quality.
 Miracle's Boys - a powerful story of grief and family September 29, 2008
Miracle's Boys is the powerful story of three brothers attempting to deal with the death of their parents. The story begins after the middle brother, Charlie, has returned from Rahway, a juvenile detention center. He has changed so much in the time he was there, that his younger brother, Lafayette, refers to him as Newcharlie. The oldest brother, Ty'ree, struggles to take the place of both parents and provide for his family. As the story unfolds, we discover that Lafayette was the first to find his mother on the morning she passed away and blames himself for her death, because he froze and could only scream. We also discover that Ty'ree blames himself for their father's death, because he told his dad to save the woman and her dog. Newcharlie has difficulty dealing with their mother's death, simply because he was not there when she died and attempts to comfort himself by believing that he could have saved her had he been there. As the story progresses, we watch the brothers grow closer together and begin to deal with their grief in their own separate ways, Ty'ree and Lafayette holding to the hope that one day Newcharlie will become Charlie once more.
This story is very well written and draws the reader in so that we feel the emotions of the readers as if they were our own. The author expertly uses flashbacks to help the reader "get to know" the characters and understand them on a personal level. This novel grabs the reader and draws them and we find ourselves living the struggles these boys face along with them - their hopes, their dreams, and their pain. As the book closes, we realize that only two days have passed, but we feel as if we have known the boys for a lifetime. This book deals with the pain of loss, raw grief, and some teenage violence; each of these issues adds to the power of the book and the relationships described. I would definitely recommend this book, though not to someone who's grief is new.
Family Deals with Crisis June 8, 2007
Lafayette's life used to be pretty stable. He never knew his father--he died before Lafayette was born, from hypothermia he got saving a woman and her dog from a frozen-over pond. Even though he had no father, Lafayette was pretty happy living with his mother, his oldest brother Ty'ree and his other older brother, Charlie. Charlie shared a room with Lafayette and was always especially kind to his little brother.
Then when he was twelve, Charlie held up a store. He was caught, and his punishment for this crime was to be sent away to a juvenile detention center--a prison for adolescents. While Charlie was in this detention center, their mother died.
Now Charlie is back at home again, living with Lafayette and Ty'ree, who was old enough to get custody of his two younger brothers when their mother died. But Charlie is radically different from the brother Lafayette used to know. He no longer cares about animals. He is doing badly in school and has started hanging around with a bad group from the neighborhood. Worst of all, he seems to hate Lafayette. He barely speaks to Lafayette, and when he does, it is to say something mean, like that Lafayette was the cause of their mother's death. Lafayette knows that isn't true, but he sometimes feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Ty'ree says Charlie is just angry at the world and he tries to keep the peace, but Lafayette knows that something has to change. He just doesn't know if he's the one who will be able to change it.
I loved Ty'ree's character; he was very strong and I would have liked to have had more insight into what he was thinking about his situation. I liked the hopeful ending of the book; it seemed as though things were going to be okay. It was sad, though, to think of Ty'ree having to give up his promising future in order to take care of his brothers.
Miracle Boys February 1, 2007
Marcus, Vishal, and Nathan. Language Arts Honors A3
Lafayette never got a chance to meet his father; his dad died before Lafayette was even born. Though he misses having a dad to do boy stuff with, Lafayette didn't know the man enough to miss him personally. When his mother dies, though, Lafayette is crushed. He misses her terribly --- every day, with every thought.
Lafayette's oldest brother Ty'ree misses their mother just as much. With both parents gone, Ty'ree is now responsible raising Laf and also looking out for middle brother Charlie who has just returned from doing time in a juvenile detention center. In addition to being full of sorrow, Ty'ree is bitter: If he didn't have to look after his younger brothers, Ty'ree would have been able to attend college. Now, he works like a dog in the mailroom for a big company and is tired all the time from trying to make ends meet. Laf tries not to ask too many questions, or cry too much, or to want things they can't afford. On top of it all, Charlie just keeps acting out and getting in trouble. If he caught by the police again, Charlie and Laf will be made wards of the court.
Author Woodson has a wonderful talent for writing about kids in tough situations. You really understand how someone in Laf's position might feel. This is a touching novel about a family trying to stay afloat through some really hard times. Their mother, whose name was Milagro, (Miracle in Spanish) was the center of the family and held them together. Now they must rely on each other while learning to deal with the death of their mother. They already got their one miracle --- can they stick together without one?
This is a quiet novel that you can read quickly. All the action takes place in one day, but it never feels hurried or too busy. If you are looking for a book that makes violence, gang life, and fighting brothers seem dramatic or glamorous, this is not the book for you. But if you want to read a realistic story about how these elements of urban life affect a small, loving family, try reading MIRACLE'S BOYS. Laf has tremendous reserves of kindness and love, and the bravery to show his emotions when he feels them. This whole novel is sometimes very sad, but it ends on a hopeful note. And as is usual with this author's work, it's also very beautiful.
Miracle Boys February 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Marcus, Nathan, and Vishal. Language Arts Honors A3
Lafayette never got a chance to meet his father; his dad died before Lafayette was even born. Though he misses having a dad to do boy stuff with, Lafayette didn't know the man enough to miss him personally. When his mother dies, though, Lafayette is crushed. He misses her terribly --- every day, with every thought.
Lafayette's oldest brother Ty'ree misses their mother just as much. With both parents gone, Ty'ree is now responsible raising Laf and also looking out for middle brother Charlie who has just returned from doing time in a juvenile detention center. In addition to being full of sorrow, Ty'ree is bitter: If he didn't have to look after his younger brothers, Ty'ree would have been able to attend college. Now, he works like a dog in the mailroom for a big company and is tired all the time from trying to make ends meet. Laf tries not to ask too many questions, or cry too much, or to want things they can't afford. On top of it all, Charlie just keeps acting out and getting in trouble. If he caught by the police again, Charlie and Laf will be made wards of the court.
Author Woodson has a wonderful talent for writing about kids in tough situations. You really understand how someone in Laf's position might feel. This is a touching novel about a family trying to stay afloat through some really hard times. Their mother, whose name was Milagro, (Miracle in Spanish) was the center of the family and held them together. Now they must rely on each other while learning to deal with the death of their mother. They already got their one miracle --- can they stick together without one?
This is a quiet novel that you can read quickly. All the action takes place in one day, but it never feels hurried or too busy. If you are looking for a book that makes violence, gang life, and fighting brothers seem dramatic or glamorous, this is not the book for you. But if you want to read a realistic story about how these elements of urban life affect a small, loving family, try reading MIRACLE'S BOYS. Laf has tremendous reserves of kindness and love, and the bravery to show his emotions when he feels them. This whole novel is sometimes very sad, but it ends on a hopeful note. And as is usual with this author's work, it's also very beautiful.
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