Kindness for Weakness by Shawn Goodman

Gut Instinct Rating - 3

Story Line - 2

Writing Style - 5

Characters - 3.5

Excitement Factor - 2

Believability for type and topics - 4

Similarity to other books - 3

Dust Jacket Art - 4.5

Title Relevance - 3.5

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.88. I think it was more deserving of a 2.89.

Emoji Meter: 😑 😠 🚔

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Published in 2013.

Pages: 272.

Number of books by author: 6 Novels.

Genre: YA Fiction.

Overall, this book was just below the reading level I was wanting at the moment, which meant it was under my expectations of everything in general, which meant I didn't really care for it so much this time around. The characters were fine. No one moved me, though. That's what we all want in a book, right? A character to move us - or at least the story to move us (which is usually perpetuated by a character). Every character felt exactly the same. I've read a few books where kids are in juvie, and every character in every book has matched up. For example, James - the main character, he's a generally good kid, and he wasn't meant to be in juvie, but he was there anyway. And his parents, well, they were good-for-nothing. His brother? Good for nothing, too; but once James went to jail, there was a shift in their relationship, which was kind of the shift in the story line, really. The guards, the other inmates - split between basic "good" or "bad" categories. It was really basic character development. Now, as I said earlier, this book was written on a really basic reading level. I think at a 6th grade level, probably. I think a 12-year old could've easily captured what was happening... some things might've required a little more assistance, but I think it could've been done. Because the story line was so basic and nothing really happened, it would've been easy for a

younger audience to grasp the purpose of this story (although, the purpose seemed pretty minimal and more for an older audience when the story was written for a younger audience). The story was written for kids - to encourage them to do the right thing, to stay out of jail. But to remind them if they end up in jail, that there's the possibility of a positive life outside of jail when they get out. But the real purpose of the story is for adults to make a difference for the kids in these juvenile halls. The reading audience doesn't mesh well with the actual purposed audience, and I think those are two things that an author really has to focus on. Moving on, the writing style was very basic, again - pointing back to the reading audience. The believability of the story bothered me from the beginning. James gets pinched for a crime - a legitimate crime, too. But, what bothers me is he has a clean record. His parent(s), his brother, his teachers, even kids at school would've said he was a clean kid. So how does a kid with no record, nothing pointing to a potential future in crime, end up in juvie for 12 months? But once you get over this part, it's all really well done, unfortunately. If the book wasn't so incredibly boring, it might've been enjoyable. What was expressed in almost 300 pages could've easily been done in 150 pages and it would've been just as good, if not better. I would've preferred a shorter book, honestly. But what do I know?