Book Report on Forest Gate

   

 This week I read a depressing book called Forest Gate by Peter Akinti. The book is about a brother and a sister who come from Somalia in Africa and now live in England because their parents were killed.  When they get there, they face a lot of racism but one kid named James doesn't tease them. Ashvin the brother makes friends with James. Suddenly Ashvin starts acting strangely and then James and Ashvin kill one of the kids who bullied them. After that Ashvin and James do a double suicide but James survives. When he is in the hospital Miena, Ashvin's sister ask if he wants to live with her and he says "yes" because his brothers at home are drug dealers and mean to him. At the end of the book, James learns that his oldest brother killed all his brothers and then killed himself. In the book everything goes wrong for James.

    One example of this is when James attempts suicide with Ashvin but Ashvin dies and James doesn't. James knows he can't attempt suicide again. Another example is when James is a suspect for killing the Ethiopian kid (which he did) just as they are trying to start a new life. This is a problem because now he has an inspector on his tail. This shows that everything goes wrong for James.

    More examples of this are when James is in his new life and everything is good until he learns about his brothers' deaths and suicide. Another example is that all of his brothers are addicted to drugs and they are drug dealers. This is important because this is what shaped his personality and he is respected from most of the gangs because of his brothers.

    All in all, Forest Gate was a great book showing how racism is still alive today and that being poor is really tough. In the book it shows me the poverty in James's familyand how the brothers get money from selling drugs. It also shows the teasing and bullying towards Ashvin's family. I've learned from this book that racism and poverty still exist and what they can cause harm to people.