This book was really moving for me. I'll be starting a ring for this one.

from Amazon:

Imagine a world in which teenage girls hang obituaries on their bedroom walls instead of posters. Sikes, former Mademoiselle senior writer and producer of the youth-oriented PBS series In the Mix, knows that world, having spent a year "kicking it" with girl gangs in three U.S. cities (Los Angeles, San Antonio and Milwaukee). According to Sykes, 10% of the American teenagers involved in gangs are girls. These young women organize and identify themselves through their own gangs, which are often auxiliaries of male gangs. They deal drugs, steal, fight and retaliate viciously against their rivals. Sikes's relationship to her subjects ranges from anthropologist to big sister, and her portraits are sympathetic and genuine. The reportage hits hardest when she implicates herself in the events she describes. A party she attends in South Central Los Angeles is rousted by the cops and she is forced, along with the Crip set she is studying, to kneel and put her hands up: "The action felt strange, humiliating. I noticed how much it hurt on the concrete." Her writing is brisk and accessible, though short on analysis or conclusions rather like a Mademoiselle feature. Still, Sikes offers a convincing, unsettling view of a domain that most would as soon avoid.

Bookring order:

midwinter, AZ
babykittysmama, CA
Megi53, VA (int. ok)
shpriz1, NY
Sherria, CT (int ok)
dancing-dog, TN
mysteryfan03, MO
dakingsize, AUSTRIA
summerbreeze, CAN
juicy-comrade, CAN
juli2007, AUS
Stoxasths, GREECE
nicolesinger, NC
sunfi, OH
mrsordonez, MO

Sorry for not journaling this sooner! I'm about halfway through the book (just got to San Antonio) and expect to have it done this weekend. I'll journal again as soon as I'm done :)
*****

Update 8/9/05 - I can't believe I forgot to journal this before sending it out. Apologies to all involved in the ring!
Once I got going on this book, the pages just flew by. The author has a casual, engaging style that keeps you right in the thick of the action, while allowing you to draw your own conclusions. I was particularly struck by the midwestern gangs - the abject poverty and belief that there's no other way really got to me.
I'm now curious about girl gangs in my own community. We've long had male gangs, but the women never get any press.
Lots of food for thought...

Received and is next on the pile to be read. Thanks for sharing this.

Whoooeeeee. Dangerously addictive reading. As a mommy (she's four, but growing!!) who lives a mere 80 blocks south of one of the neighborhoods, this was a frightening book. True, my husband and I lead a fairly boring, nuclear-family-June-n-Ward Cleaver life, but just knowing these people are out there ready to prey on our kids gives me a downright yucky feeling.

This gave me even more compassion for those social workers, teachers, and counselors of our teenaged youth.

Thanks for sharing this, MrsOrdonez. Will be passed along as soon as I've an address.

Just got it today. I was out as usual, doing some back-to-school shopping, and my son opened the envelope. He said, "A girl with a gun!"

Ought to be interesting reading.

This was an eye-opener! I left San Antonio in 1978 to move East for a job; and according to this book my old neighborhood (Military Drive) became the main gang drag ten years later.

Gini Sikes brought all the personalities to life: girls/young women, their guys, their moms and stepfathers, their kids... I was very impressed by Sweetie, the leader in San Antonio who refused to let her homegirls "pull trains". Imagine what her forceful personality could accomplish if she set her sights on different goals.

Spoiler: It was a shame Coco had such bad luck when her house burned down. She had almost made it out from under all of her problems when that happened. It drives home the unsettling fact that so many people live one misfortune away from disaster.

The narrative was stronger for the several times Sikes returned to visit her gang acquaintances after several months had passed. I'd be interested to read even more updates.

Thanks for offering this book on a ring! Mailing to shpriz1 this afternoon.

Received it today. This book couldn't have come at a better time. In just a few weeks we will be talking about girl gangs in my "Culture and Crime" class, so this book arrived at the perfect time...Thank you :)

This book was a true eye-opener. It made me sad and angry to see how society failed all these families. And we keep failing them. It really is a catch-22 for all these kids. They really don't have any other alternative but to join one of the gangs. I'm looking forward to my Anthropology class on Tuesday, where we will be discussing the issue of girls in gangs. Thank you all so much for sending me this book at such a perfect time. The required reading for this class disappointed me since it was strickly from a criminologist's point of view. I am glad I was able to read this book, because it gave me a different side of the story. It helped to put actual faces and names to the statistics.
I will be mailing it out to next participant as soon as I have an address.

It's here safe and sound. I have one book to finish, then I'll pick this one up. Thanks for sharing!

Wow, I agree with everyone else, this was a very eye-opening book. We don't hear about the involvement of girls in gangs; the attention always seems to be on the guys. From what I read in this book, though, it's just as rough and just as risky to be a girl in a gang, maybe moreso because the girls continue to be 2nd class citizens even when they have their own gangs.

Sikes did a really good job of bringing these girls to life on the pages of this book. They were very "real" - good and bad, and utterly frustrating at times. It must have been heartbreaking to do the research for this book, to get to know these kids and their families enough that they'd open up, and then have to walk away without being able to make a significant difference. It must have been completely frustrating to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again, even when they knew the likely outcome.

I grew up in a tiny, isolated town in northern Canada, and now I live in a very upscale community in the NYC suburbs. Gangs simply haven't been a part of my reality, fortunately. This book gave me a look inside something I simply wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.

Thanks for sharing this mrsordonez. I have dancing-dog's address, so I'll drop it in the mail tomorrow.

Just rec'd in the mail - looks really interesting and I'll start it as soon as possible.

This book was gripping and disturbing at the same time. I really wasn't surprised at anything I read though - I lived in L.A. for 25 yrs and used to work on 104th St near the LAX airport - not too far at all from 110th St - Lennox territory. So for me, the L.A. section was the most interesting. I liked the fact that the author did a follow-up on L.A. also since I was curious about the future for Coco, TJ and Shygirl. It was sad that Coco wanted to make her life better but ended up being homeless. I think the author was truly courageous to take this project on and in some of the situations she was in I was a little worried for her safety. A unique and interesting book - thanks for sharing it, mrsordonez!

I will put this in the mail to mysteryfan03 tomorrow or Friday.

Got this today! Thanks! I will try and get to it soon.

This book was quite the eye opener to some how it is to grow up in this setting! I wasn't sure if I would like the book, but was hooked after a couple of pages. (however, the book did bog down for me towards the end, when it all seemed so repetitious, I wanted it to wrap up)
I was saddened, but not surprised that women being second class extends even into this area of violence and death. I was especially saddened by the children and toddlers who were practically "prepped" for gangs while growing up. Thank you so much for sharing this viewpoint and stories with us, mrsordonez! I will be passing this on in the next couple of weeks.

got it ;) - was a long trip i guess

*snatch*

looking forward to get into it - an thanks for the stickers - \\* ~!


Edit: For a couple of circumstances I was not able to keep the ring spinning – I’m in fact really sorry for that – and send my admission of guilt and request for mercy. As soon I got the address from “summerbreeze” the book will continue its journey!

For me it was quite remarkable to get a new point of view. I’m sure we do not know something comparative like this in Austria, perhaps in “smaller version” but not on this level. A interesting book - thanks for sharing it!

Wow, I expected this book to be so long gone and lost and forgotten about...When I first asked to be a part of the ring, I put the reply email in my email account and left it there...many books have since come and gone but the email has sat in my account for 2 years.

Anyway, it is now here and I can't wait to get started on it.

I have not been able to get into this book, and I have not really had a whole day to sit and get started reading this book. So, I am going to send the book on its way as I don't want to keep the book any longer. I have read about 2 chapters and I did enjoy those two chapters and was intrigued by how women got their start in gangs. It was not as much of an eye opener for me because I work with female addicts a lot. One time in one job setting I worked in, I had two girls move into the group home and both girls were from different gangs. Boy oh boy, the fights I had to intervene and step in the middle of, it was crazy.

Anyway, poverty sucks because that is how these two girls got into gangs, it was due to poverty. One girl was telling me the story of how at 10 years old she was helping her mom inject heroin into her arm, and by 13 her mom asked her to start selling herself for more money for drugs. It was so sad and disturbing, but the sad life we all live with.

Oh well, time to move the book on.