Hobbs, Jeff

"Traces the academic pursuits of four Los Angeles high school boys with very different backgrounds and resources who navigate challenges in class, race, expectations, cultural divides and luck to attend college"--OCLC.

"Very little has been written about juvenile justice. In the greater consciousness, the word 'justice' in this context has been leeched of meaning; it just signifies prison for kids. But to those living and working in various capacities within that system, the word 'justice' holds a sepulchral gravity. In Children of the State, bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace Jeff Hobbs presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the existential challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors, administrators, and--most importantly--children. While serving a year-long detention in Wilmington, DE--perennially one of the violent crime capitols of America--a bright but stunted young man considers the benefits and also the immense costs of striving for college acceptance while imprisoned. A career juvenile hall English Language Arts teacher struggles to align the small moments of wonder in her work alongside its overall statistical futility, all while the city government presumes to design a new juvenile system without cinderblocks--and possibly without those teaching in the current system. A territorial fistfight in Paterson, NJ is characterized by the media as a hate crime, and the boy held accountable for that crime seeks redemption and friendship in a rigorous Life & Professional Skills class in lower Manhattan. These stories are followed to their knotty conclusions in triptych form. In chronicling the work of this constellation of people trying to accomplish good work in abjectly horrible systems and circumstances, Children of the State asks: What should society do with young people who have made terrible decisions? For many kids, a woeful mistake made at age thirteen or fourteen--often as a result of external factors bearing upon a biologically immature brain--will resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle class life a foolish fantasy. To observe these missteps and raw challenges and small triumphs from shoulder height, through the experiences of thinking, feeling, poignant young people, is to be moved to consider altering the fixed narrative currently laid out of them. As Hobbs demonstrates in piercing, vivid prose: No one so young should ever be considered irredeemable"--Provided by the publisher.

Chronicles the lives of four Los Angeles High School seniors from assorted socioeconomic backgrounds at two different high schools. Follows their challenges as they navigate tough classes, college applications, family life, and personal problems.

Looks at the life of Robert Peace, who was born outside Newark in a ghetto known as "Illtown," earned a full scholarship to Yale University, and graduated. He returned home and taught at a Catholic high school, but was killed at the age of thirty in a drug-related shooting.

Peace was a talented young African-American man who escaped the slums of Newark for Yale University, only to succumb to the dangers of the streets -- and of one's own nature -- when he returned home. When Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with Peace, his college roommate for four years. Peace's life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s, and he carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, "fronting" in Yale and at home. Through an honest rendering of Peace's relationships, Hobbs examines the collision of two fiercely insular worlds.