Understanding Ruben

This book is about a young boy whose name is Ruben Thomas. Ruben lives in the housing projects of a large inner city. The neighborhood is impoverished and crime ridden. He and his two sisters live with their grandmother who is raising them on her own. Life as a child in this environment is very challenging. Ruben is a beginning third grade, and for the last three years has had a difficult time in school. He has a reputation for being unmotivated and often times, difficult.This year...
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This book is about a young boy whose name is Ruben Thomas. Ruben lives in the housing projects of a large inner city. The neighborhood is impoverished and crime ridden. He and his two sisters live with their grandmother who is raising them on her own. Life as a child in this environment is very challenging. Ruben is a beginning third grade, and for the last three years has had a difficult time in school. He has a reputation for being unmotivated and often times, difficult.This year he's placed in Ms. Smith's (Afro American) third grade class. Ms. Smith who is a sharp young teacher makes an immediate effort not to pre-judge Ruben based on his previous school experience and decides to establish a significant relationship with him.Ruben recognizes that he has something special in Ms. Smith and describes throughout the book how Ms. Smith changed his life to help him become not only a better student, but a better person.