Who am I Without him? by Sharon G. Flake is a book of short stories about teenagers and their experiences with the opposite sex. The book deals with issues such as love, relationships, cheating, and beauty. My favorite story in the book, "Jacobs's Rules," follows a boy as he discovers that being a man means treating women right. Another story, "Wanted: A Thug," deals with the desire many girls have for a "bad boy." These stories do a great job of talking about real issues in a way that doesn't sugar-coat them.
While there are many great stories in this book, I would not teach all of the stories to a middle school classroom. "So I Ain't No Good Girl" is the story of a girl whose boyfriend is constantly cheating on her, but she doesn't care because he's the best-looking guy in school. At the end of the story, she sees him kissing another girl and decides to make him a nice dinner and pretend she didn't see anything. Another story, "I Know a Stupid Boy When I See One," has an awkward "and that's how I died" moment that just doesn't make sense in the story.
These stories all deal with high school students, but many of them could be taught in a middle school classroom. A lot of the stories deal with girls and their affinity for boys who don't treat them right. Other stories talk about the same issue from the perspective of boys. Contrasting these stories could open up some discussion on relationships, a topic that is new and confusing to most middle school students. While the stories are written from the perspective of African American adolescents, the issues in the book can be applied to young people of any background. These stories give great examples of what is and is not acceptable in healthy relationships, and I would definitely teach eight out of the ten stories in this book in a middle school classroom.
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