What do you see when you look in the mirror?

I wanted to investigate the images of adolescent African American boys in literature for a few reasons. I often see images of young African American boys related to sports, music, drugs, sex and violence. Many of the images are negative, and show an image of a boy who’s only redeeming quality is that they are great athletes, musicians or other artistic outlets. Also images of African American boys are seen as drug dealers, violent and absent minded in school, their home lives and the like. These images permeate our video media (such as movies and television, even the local news) and I wanted to investigate these images in children’s literature. I wanted to know what kinds of books were readily available in local bookstores and what images of young men they will depict.