reviews of the other wes moore

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the governor of Maryland, the “compassionate” (People), “startling” (Baltimore Sun), “moving” (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison.

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

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore. 

Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-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.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ One World; Reprint edition (January 11, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 250 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385528205
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385528207
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 990L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Reviewer: Promise
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great read!
Review: Book came in perfect shape and good packaging. Now what was in the book was truly amazing. As a life long Marylander I wanted to know more about Governor Moores story and this didn’t disappoint. I read it in less than 24 hours, from the time I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. So many lessons to learn from 2 lives. This is a book I’ll tell my future children to read. If you’re thinking about getting it, please do!

Reviewer: IrisRose
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Heartbreaking and so real
Review: Although Mr. Moore's two stories reveal nothing new in our general knowledge of the heartbreaking results of poverty, they still lucidly bring us into the disparity of opportunities in the black community. Yes, I do believe that each person is responsible for his own actions and it is possible to 'pull oneself up with determination.' However, there has to be some encouragement somewhere along the line. There also has to be something to spark that determination. Mr. Moore's family was educated and intelligent. His mother was determined that he not go down that bleak road, and went to extreme measures to ensure that. For the other Wes Moore, there was nothing, no father, an addict mother who loved her sons, but had no idea HOW to love them, and mentorship that took him to the wrong places. If there is not family, there is sometimes a teacher or minister as a mentor or an inspiration. The other Wes had neither of these. He had only the glittering motivation of money made from drug dealing. With absolutely nothing else satisfying in his life, he could not see any other way to go. Blame him, if you will, but I really can't.His life is contrasted to Mr. Moore's not by poverty: both were impoverished. Not by neighborhood: both lived in tough neighborhoods. Not by street influece. I will go so far as to say not entirely by education: many young impoverished children have grown up to be healthy hard-working adults without advanced education. But yes, education to a certain point. The other Wes could not find a reason to continue in school. Blame him for that or not; his circumstances overcame any light he might find in the educational system. They were contrasted by the support of family. I will also say that family is not always able to make a difference. Family must work very hard and actively to keep children away from the dangers of the street. The other Wes's mother had no desire or even knowledge of how to do that. Mr. Moore's family did, from the beginning.Wes Moore's writing style is not an inspired literary work. Don't expect that. But he tells his story with straightforward honesty and sincerity of feeling. He is sympathetic for the other Wes Moore without excusing him, using pathos, or becoming maudlin. I feel that his style and tone are objective and clear. This directness in his writing makes the stories of the two men stand on their own merit, thus making them stronger.I do not see judgment of the other Wes Moore in this story, nor do I see anything self-congratulatory in Mr. Moore's own story. It is a valuable book that brings the depressing reality of hopelessness or near hopelessness of a life in poverty. I would like to see this book on all school library shelves, in classrooms, and encouraged reading by teachers who care at all about their kids. One spark, one little spark can make the difference. I know.

Reviewer: inner city teacher
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book but author is too close to his own story to see what an outsider can plainly see
Review: Love the book and am using it in my ELD classroom. It has been a hit and we are doing much writing from it. However, the dramatic declarations "The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his" are not born out by the facts. My students have picked up on this right away. The real story is that decisions by the mothers in each case are what sealed the fates of their sons. The author Wes had two college educated parents who obtained their degrees before they had children. Joy had parents who had stable jobs and owned a home in the Bronx. Mary,the mother of the other Wes, on the other hand, gave up when Reagan cut Pell Grants and didn't try to find alternative sources of funding to attend John Hopkins. She did have an Associate's Degree and perhaps could have obtained a higher Associates in something like Registered Nursing. But she settled on a Unit Secretary job, which while stable and respectable, could not give her economic traction. Her own father was an alcoholic and she had a relationship with an alcoholic who left her when the other Wes was born. The author Wes's dad died of a rare illness. . The author Wes never got in as deep trouble as the other Wes did and his mother took control and never gave up. Mary on the other hand did. Those are the cold hard facts. The keys to this story lie in the mothers and secondly in the decisions of both Wes's. Two people can grow up in similar socio-economic areas with the same name and be completely different. I've seen it in my own students. What struck me about this book is not how alike both Wes's are, but in fact how starkly different their circumstances were. I still highly recommend this book because it is well-written and compelling for many reasons. It should be read by young women even more so than by young men. The audio book read by the author is wonderful and I use it in my classroom. There are many websites out there with lessons you can adapt. Two teachers in particular have great websites devoted to the book.

Reviewer: C.D.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I introduced this novel to my grade 12 class several years ago. Even my most reluctant readers devoured it!

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book was amazing. I really enjoyed reading it and told all my family what I'd read each time I saw them.

Reviewer: D. Pelz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Eine bewegende Geschichte, die gute Einblicke in die traurige Realität vieler Afroamerikaner ermöglicht. Erfolg und Misserfolg liegen oft nah bei einander. Nicht jeder hat dieselben Voraussetzungen um ein glückliches Leben zu führen.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Reading it now! Love it but find the print a little smaller than usual!

Reviewer: Barbara
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Sehr gut erzählte Geschichte - fesselnd von der ersten Seite an! Das Buch regt einen auf jeden Fall zum nachdenken an....