Olentangy Local School District

Literature Selection Review

In a brief rationale, please provide the following information relative to the book you would like

added to the school’s book collection for classroom use. You may attach additional pages as

needed.

Book Summary and summary citation:

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have

been his.

wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a

generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

Wes Moore is a Rhodes Scholar and a combat veteran of Afghanistan. As a White House Fellow, he

worked as a special assistant to Secretary Condoleezza Rice at the State Department. He was a

featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, was named one of Ebony

magazine’s Top 30 Leaders Under 30 (2007), and, most recently, was dubbed one of the top young

business leaders in New York by Crain’s New York Business. He works in New York City.

(barnesandnoble.com)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop

and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific

sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate

to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and

style of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.8: Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a

text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

At about the same time, The Sun published articles about another young African-American man,

also named Wes Moore. This one was facing charges of first-degree murder for the killing of an off-

duty police officer named Bruce Prothero, a father of five.

Both Wes Moores had troubled youths in blighted neighborhoods, difficulties in school, clashes

with authority and unpleasant encounters with police handcuffs. But one ended up graduating Phi

Beta Kappa and serving as a White House fellow, and today is a banker with many volunteer

activities. The other is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.

“One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid,” the

successful Wes Moore writes in a new book, “The Other Wes Moore.“The other will spend every

day until his death behind bars. ... The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The

self-destructive behavior that is replicated generation after generation. The imprisoned Wes Moore

became a grandfather last year at 33.

The writer Wes Moore offers clues from his own experience about how boys get sucked into that

whirlpool.

His father, a radio and television journalist, died of a virus after a hospital emergency room —

seeing only a disoriented, disheveled black man — misdiagnosed him and sent him home to get

“more sleep,” Mr. Moore writes. The writer Wes grew up in a poor, drug-ravaged neighborhood of

the Bronx.

His mother worked multiple jobs and scrounged to send him to Riverdale Country School, an elite

prep school, but Wes felt out of place among wealthy, white students — and his black friends at

home teased him for going to “that white school.” Wes skipped classes, let his grades slip, hung out

with a friend who was dealing drugs, and collided with the police.

Despairing, Wes’s mother dispatched him to a military school. There he finally began to soar.

In the case of the other Wes, there were some moments when he almost escaped. His mother was

earning a college degree at Johns Hopkins — which probably would have provided the family a

her to drop out.

The author Wes Moore escaped partly because of family support and partly because he was helped

by mentors at his military school. Not surprisingly, Mr. Moore believes passionately in mentoring,

partly because so many boys in poor families have no father at home and lack male role models. He

mentors boys and girls in Baltimore and New York and is directing some of the profits from his

book to two organizations that provide mentoring.

One is City Year, which supports young people taking a year of public service to work in

impoverished neighborhoods. Another is the U.S. Dream Academy, which supports children whose

parents are in prison (and who are consequently at great risk themselves of tumbling into trouble).

There are no quick fixes to solve poverty. But carefully conducted experiments show that some

strategies work: intensive early childhood education modeled after the Abecedarian Project,

turned around. (The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, June 12, 2010)

"It takes a village to raise a child," goes the African proverb. This book is a cautionary tale of what

happens when the village is ill equipped to do so. The author, a Rhodes scholar and investment

banker, intercuts his life story with that of another young man with the same name. Both were born

around the same time in the same Baltimore neighborhood; both were fatherless; both suffered

under the weight of poverty, drugs and crime. The other Wes Moore, however, will spend the rest of

his life inside a prison cell for murder. "Wes's story could have been mine; the tragedy is that my

story could have been his," Moore writes. Of course, nothing is ever that simple. When it appeared

her son's life was headed for disaster, the author's mother moved in with her supportive parents and

found money to send him to military school. Yet despite interviews with family and the other man,

we never fully understand the other Wes Moore's motivations. The author knows it took many

helping hands to save his life. In the case of the other Wes Moore, there appears to be no clear

answer as to what went wrong. (Times Magazine, Frances Romero, May 17, 2010)

What alternate texts) could also fulfill the instructional requirements?

Document any potentially controversial content:

descriptions of situations involving of drug deals, one instance of b--ch

Keeping in mind the age, academic level, and maturity of the intended reader, what is the

suggested classroom use: (check all that apply)

Gifted/Accelerated X Regular X At Risk X

GRADE LEVEL(S): 6☐ 7☐ 8☐ 9 X 10 X 11 X 12 X