This is a collection of short stories about young people, 12 to 30. They described their attempts to deal with awkward situations told with compassion, honesty, and with full access to their inner fantasies and fears. It might not be great literature but very good and numerous of its characters linger in my mind. ( )

When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through. "Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right, there are some factors that are similar in several of the stories. First, in all but two of the stories, the main character is usually a black girl who attends private school. Secondly,most of the stories take place in Philadelphia or surrounding areas. Lastly, all of the stories have some sort of element of surprise. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in "Get Down," my two favorites stories were "Twelve takes Thea" and "Save me." In "Twelve take Thea," we are introduced to Thea Brown, a girl who is trying to fit in at her private school which is proving to be hard since she is one of two black girls at the school. The title itself is a play on the title "Tracie Marie Takes Twelve." In the course of the story, Thea and her best friend Nadja go to the same private school then Nadja mother sends her to another school. Nadja leaving Thea alone forces her to make new friends but Thea is torn between her loyalty to her and Nadja friendship and her new friends. I enjoyed "Twelve takes Thea" because it was a great coming of age story and it also was a deeper story about acceptance and loyalty as well. My second favorite story in "Get Down" was "Save Me." I was intrigued by this story mainly because of the technique Solomon used with this story. "Save Me" use a type of narration in which the narrator makes the reader the main character of the story by saying what is happening to you and how you felt about it. This type of narration is especially interesting since "Save Me" is about a trip to Christian summer camp and in the story the point is made the the campers have to experience God for themselves. As with the other stories in "Get Down," the experience shared by the character is one the mostly anyone can relate to and again, this story deals with acceptance and loyalty. I also like that Solomon let the reader draw their own conclusions in reference to how the story would end. It is refreshing to now have a story end in a predictable way or have a chance to use your own mind to determine how the character's fate will play out. Overall, this was a wonderful debut by Asali Solomon. The stories in "Get Down" were funny, sad, rich, and realistic. Although this book dealt with different characters in different way, the two theme I gathered from this book was how important acceptance and loyalty can be. Although we may feel it is not that important or may even say that it it is not important, at the end of the day,we still want to feel like we belong to something. ( )

When I first saw the book jacket for "Get Down," I was instantly taken back to my childhood in the '80 and days of watching Yo MTV raps and break-dancing. What Asali Solomon manages to do in "Get Down" is not only capture the 1980's perfectly,she also creates stories that drawn in the reader and makes you care about the characters and the situations they are going through. "Get Down" consists of seven stories and although each story is special in its own right, there are some factors that are similar in several of the stories. First, in all but two of the stories, the main character is usually a black girl who attends private school. Secondly,most of the stories take place in Philadelphia or surrounding areas. Lastly, all of the stories have some sort of element of surprise. Although I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in "Get Down," my two favorites stories were "Twelve takes Thea" and "Save me." In "Twelve take Thea," we are introduced to Thea Brown, a girl who is trying to fit in at her private school which is proving to be hard since she is one of two black girls at the school. The title itself is a play on the title "Tracie Marie Takes Twelve." In the course of the story, Thea and her best friend Nadja go to the same private school then Nadja mother sends her to another school. Nadja leaving Thea alone forces her to make new friends but Thea is torn between her loyalty to her and Nadja friendship and her new friends. I enjoyed "Twelve takes Thea" because it was a great coming of age story and it also was a deeper story about acceptance and loyalty as well. My second favorite story in "Get Down" was "Save Me." I was intrigued by this story mainly because of the technique Solomon used with this story. "Save Me" use a type of narration in which the narrator makes the reader the main character of the story by saying what is happening to you and how you felt about it. This type of narration is especially interesting since "Save Me" is about a trip to Christian summer camp and in the story the point is made the the campers have to experience God for themselves. As with the other stories in "Get Down," the experience shared by the character is one the mostly anyone can relate to and again, this story deals with acceptance and loyalty. I also like that Solomon let the reader draw their own conclusions in reference to how the story would end. It is refreshing to now have a story end in a predictable way or have a chance to use your own mind to determine how the character's fate will play out. Overall, this was a wonderful debut by Asali Solomon. The stories in "Get Down" were funny, sad, rich, and realistic. Although this book dealt with different characters in different way, the two theme I gathered from this book was how important acceptance and loyalty can be. Although we may feel it is not that important or may even say that it it is not important, at the end of the day,we still want to feel like we belong to something. ( )

authored by a college friend

excellent collection of short stories. truly insightful narrative about the inner lives of these characters. very impressed! ( )