National Network for Equitable Library Service

In this memoir, Moore tells the story of his life as a child of Baltimore and the Bronx, an army officer in Afghanistan, a Rhodes Scholar, and a former White House Fellow. In detailing his journey from troubled adolescence to successful business career, he focuses on the intriguing concept of chronicling not only his life but that of another young man with the same name, from the same city, and roughly about the same age-the other Wes Moore. Drugs, violence, and prison marked the life of the other Wes Moore, now serving a life sentence for the murder of a police officer. The author, after meeting the man who shares his name, gives us a book that details the parallel lives of these two boys, coming of age the hard way in the 1980s and 1990s. The author includes a list of over 200 organizations dedicated to helping American youth. VERDICT With its unique spin on the memoir genre, this engaging and insightful book ultimately asks the reader to consider the ways in which we as a nation alternately support and fail American children. The charismatic author and the publisher's nationwide publicity plans should make this a popular book for general readers interested in memoir, African American studies, or social issues.