I'm a teacher, and I have a class of all boys (9th grade) who are interested solely in the following things: cartels, guns, gangs, money, and partying. I'm looking for fiction texts that would address these topics. They need to be pretty gritty. I tried to trick them with Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds; they liked it at first, but then they were pretty frustrated with me when there wasn't "any action." I have a solid collection of nonfiction articles about cartel activity that I'm going to pick from, and I figure that with a seeming dearth of fiction options, it could be a good chance for them to write their own stories that they would want to read. But I'm also hoping for some mentor texts that could be good/relevant for reference. All suggestions welcome! Also would love some poetry to work in.
FYI – They read The House of the Scorpion and The Outsiders last year. We are currently reading R&J, and I'm really emphasizing the beefing families. I'm looking to use some excerpts from some of the titles that come up when you Google "fiction books cartel" etc. Anything to help me incorporate more literary texts that would relate — contemporary about gangs, something about masculinity, hedonism, etc — would be useful.
Thank you!
by valbarisnarnia