The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780385528191)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the governor of Maryland, the "compassionate" (People), "startling" (Baltimore Sun), "moving" (Chicago Tribune) true story of two kids with the same name from the city: One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison.

Selected by Stephen Curry as his "Underrated" Book Club Pick with Literati

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.

Wes just couldn't shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they'd hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

Author: Wes Moore
ISBN-10: 0385528191
ISBN-13: 9780385528191
Publisher: One World
Language: English
Published: 04/27/2010
Pages: 256
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.10d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.1
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 144360 / Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

Award: Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary_award - Winner
Award: Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award - Nominee
Award: Nevada Young Readers' Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 01/15/2010 pg. 74
Publishers Weekly 03/08/2010 pg. 46
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2010 pg. 186
Library Journal 04/15/2010 pg. 90
Booklist 05/01/2010 pg. 69
People Weekly 05/17/2010 pg. 66
Entertainment Weekly 05/14/2010 pg. 79
Ebony 06/01/2010 pg. 46
Christian Century 08/10/2010 pg. 42
BookPage 05/01/2010