True Notebooks (2003) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Kevin Jackson: Add a description of this character.
• Mark
• Nathaniel
• Duane
• Benny Wong
• Mr. Jenkins
• Mr. Sills
• Dale
• Patrick
• Jimmy Wu
• Karen
• Mr. Granillo
• Victor
• Chumnikai
• Sal
• Martinez
• Mr. Burkert
• Hall
• Javier
• Jones
• Jose
• Ms. Rose
• Mario
• Mr. Warren
• Vivian

Quotes edit see section history

• “"There was one more reason I did not want to visit Duane's class, but it was too depressing to face, even in the privacy of my notebook. What if Duane's students asked if I believed writing was worth the effort? If they were as cunning as their reputations suggested, they might sense how lost I felt as a writer and realize that I had nothing to offer them. Then, I imagined, they would beat me up." p. 13”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• It’s weird but this room relates to my life I once lived outside, over the walls laced with barbed wire. I was locked in a world where nothing would come in and nothing would go out.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• “Most of us gonna get out someday, right? Teen gangbangers be steppin’ out of the pen after twenty, thirty years of livin’ like animals, comin’ of age in a place where nobody trusts nobody, bein’ treated like less than a piece of shit. Wha’chu think they gonna do? Most they family be dead by then. What they got to live for? Revenge. Nothin’ else.”

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• “Everybody on the outs say they want more time, never enough time, can’t buy time. Fuck ’em. We got more time than anybody. We rich.”

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• I fear that what I’m saying won’t be heard till I’m gone. I fear that what I’m trying to do won’t be felt until I’m gone.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• The gang makes them feel part of something, it provides structure, and it gives them opportunities to prove themselves.

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• “It’s crucial for them to believe, you see, that the kids are not salvageable—they’re all just little Ted Bundys. If the kids are monsters, then it’s appropriate to dehumanize them, you see how it works? On the other hand, if you or I suggest that the kids are still developing, and could actually benefit from counseling and education, we spoil the whole picture. We’re seen as a threat.”

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• You see the kids at their best, and then think that’s the reality.”

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• “You can’t imagine how much a compliment means in a place like this! You may have changed one of those boys’ lives tonight.”

  Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers

• It all boils down to one thing, really: the kids want to feel that they matter to someone. They want to please adults, they want to fit in, they want to model themselves after someone they respect. It’s just that most of them have been brainwashed into thinking they aren’t capable of it.”

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• “I went to that meditation thing once,” Antonio said. “I went ’cause I heard the instructor was this hot female, but then I got there and it was some bald guy in a robe playin’ a harmonica. Fuck that.”

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Box
• Francisco
• Central
• Torrance

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Mark Salzman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Alex Awards (2004)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 808.042071079494

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Sociology › Urban
• Books › Reference › Writing
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Memoirs