I think that the book of Sharon G. Flake Bang has everything that I person of our age (and not only our) has to see and understand in life. In some way it opens eyes of people to problems that surround us in the world, but we either just don’t see them, or simply choose not to see them. We just prefer not to care.  The heroes of the book have to deal with a lot of physical and mental suffering, but it’s not new in the way that the events portrayed in the book are actually happening every hour in some place or another. And it seems to me that in her book Sharon G. Flake wanted to show us that if we don’t have problems of such kind in our lives – it doesn’t mean that these problems do not exist. We simply need to be more attentive and caring to others.

What amazed me the most is that the little 13-year old kid has to deal with some much grief and violence in his life that not every adult would be able to cope with it all. But Mann finds inner strength to face the world with which he has to deal. He finds it in the art, through his paintings Mann is able to explore himself, to express his feelings and his understanding of the world around him.  Art allows Mann and his friend Kee-lee to dream themselves better and bigger, it supports them and gives motivation in life to achieve something incredible, to escape from the destiny that awaits them in their surrounding. And it seems to me that the theme of creativity occupies special place in the book, it provides the book and the life of its characters with a special meaning.

Even though the life of Mann and Kee-lee is already hard enough because they have to deal with all the violence that is around them in their community and with the feeling that their lives won’t be long, still to make things even worse Mann’s father decides to show them “a real life” and teach them how to survive in it. It seems like Mann’s father just don’t understand that his son has already seen so much of this “real life” and that he is going through so much inner psychological struggle that would be enough for the rest of his life.  I perfectly understand that the behavior of Mann’s father is based on absolutely good intentions. Having one child dead he wants to preserve the life of his only left son, he wants him to be able and ready to confront the world, in such a way he simply urges Mann to grow up and forget that he is just a child. On one hand it is right because the life of Mann is not going to be easy and he has to be prepared for it. But on the other hand it seems to me that the best preparation is based on the most possible normal childhood that the family is able to provide their child with. It doesn’t mean that the child should be kept away from all the anxiety and sufferings in life, but there should always be a place where a kid could feel himself safe.

Another important issue of the book is preserving the family. Loosing one of the family members is a tragedy for every of its members and everyone of them copes with this pain differently. In the case of Mann’s family it seems sometimes that the loss of Jason, who was the most loving and sweet of the whole family, has driven every member of the family somewhat crazy. Mann’s mother had stopped eating and in some way she is obsessed with preserving Jason’s memory. It seems like this is the goal of her entire life while she has another son to care about. And Mann’s father – William – is obsessed with an idea of saving his left son’s life by turning him into a “real man”. And in order to do this he doesn’t find anything better than to abandon Mann and Kee-lee in the forest on their own so that they can find the way back themselves. And the character and behavior of Mann has also gone through serious metamorphoses. He starts to forget about the two passions that he had in life – horse- riding and painting – and begins to get involved in various sorts of school fighting, joyriding by night, and so on. But I think that the single goal that Mann pursuits by all these risky and unnecessary actions is the desire to run away from his emotions, to get rid of the pain that he has inside of him.