Student Book Review of the Bluford Series

Alissa Williams

The Bluford Series is a group of seven relatively short books that are highly relevant to today's students. With titles such as Lost and Found, A Matter of Trust, Someone to Love Me, and The Gun, the novels focus on a group of urban high school students and their families; each novel addresses situations that students care about. Alissa Williams, an 8th grade student at a public, academic magnet school in Philadelphia read all seven books in the series and shares her thoughts about the Bluford Series.

The Bluford Series is a group of books about adolescents who are faced with challenges and temptations, which forces them to make very important decisions. I personally enjoyed reading this series, but what adds to the quality of the books is the realistic relations to urban life. The series includes several aspects of urban lifestyles, such as dealing with dysfunctional families, money, school, and drug problems, as well as some positive things.

The characters were down to earth also. I got a feel for the role they played in the series and the dialect of the characters added to their personalities, which made the stories become more alive. The best part of the series is the lesson that is taught by the end of each book. Throughout the whole series, it is very easy to point out the problem and spot the solution, while learning from the books at the same time.

I would recommend this series for urban youth of middle school and high school ages because many of the challenges in this series start to fully surface around these ages. However, I also feel that his series should be open to anyone to read so that they can better understand the lifestyles of today's urban youth and possibly lend a helping hand or spare time to improve the fast coming future of this world.

For more information about the Bluford Series, contact Townsend Press at www.townsendpress.com.