"It Aint All for Nothin' " by Walter Dean Myers | Teen Ink

"It Aint All for Nothin' " by Walter Dean Myers

December 22, 2011
By Anonymous

Walter Dean Myers gives exceptional descriptions of how his life relates to Tippy the main character in “It Aint’ All for Nothing”. This book is about a young boy who loved his grandma Carrie with all his heart, and she loves him back. The main character’s name is Tippy, and in his eyes, everything began to go wrong once his grandma had to go to the hospital because she was ill. Tippy was then forced to stay with his father (Lonnie) who really does not like Tippy. He couldn’t stay with his mother because she died when he was at a young age just like Walter Myers. His father is real brutal; he threatens to physically hurt him, and multiple other things. Lonnie is also the character who has got in heaps of trouble in his past and now he is back at it. While with his friends and Tippy in the car they robbed a convenient store at gunpoint, and his friend Bubba got shot in the leg.

I feel Lonnie has horrific parenting because he had his son on the look for him while he committed a crime. After the whole scene Lonnie threatens Tippy if he tells anybody or his grandmother he will hurt him. Also he held a gun up to Tippy and said “I can shoot your ass the same way and nobody even hear it. You open your mouth about this one time and you gonna be that garbage. You hear me?” I dislike the fact that Lonnie threatens Tippy. I feel that it can make him a rough person in life as he gets older. Even though he doesn’t agree with lying to his grandma Carrie, he kept it a secret for just a little portion of time then eventually spoke on it. I like the fact that even though he is not fond with lying he did not speak on anything about what happened to keep himself and his father out of trouble.

Days passed by and Lonnie and Tippy began to bond more, but then Lonnie went back to his theft issues. Sooner than later Grandma Carrie finally came out the hospital and all the things she heard from Tippy she confronted Lonnie, but it’s up to Tippy to decide where he should stay either with his grandmother or Lonnie.

I recommend that Tippy goes with his grandmother, because Lonnie is not ready to be neither a parent nor a father. If you enjoy thrilling novels I highly advice you to get this book.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.