“Sleepaway School”

by Lee Stringer

Reviewed by Ginger B.

“We wee people were all at risk. Every mother’s son of us. Even those of us with overflowing larders and soft, warm beds. Our young hearts like leaves in the wind, we all had to face down the inner turmoil of being, simply children. We were all on shaky ground.”

These few sentences, written in the preface of this memoir, give the reader a taste of what is to follow in this personal, yet often matter-of-fact description of the adolescent struggles of a troubled, young, poor, black boy in an environment that is often inclined to exclude and demean the likes of such a child.

Stringer, after having been raised in foster care, is returned to his biological mother at the age of 6, and is moved to a mostly white suburb, where mom hopes life will be better. Life in foster care has taken its toll on the young boy and anger issues emerge as Lee tries to “fit in.” His violent behavior lands him in “Hawthorne Cedar Knolls School”, a sleep away school for young boys in crisis. Being a “state funded” kid in a mostly privately funded environment, Stringer is once again marked as an intruder, and his normal defense mechanisms eventually lead him to a psychiatric hospital where he is admitted for observation. His description of this event evokes a sense of sadness at the acceptance of his situation. “…being locked down on a ward full of madmen wasn’t really the scary thing…The scariest thing of all though, was discovering the sublime satisfaction that I got out of life in a bathrobe. How willingly my desire for anything more than that had surrendered to the allure of blissful nothingness.”

But Stringer is returned to the school, and, during the remainder of the book, he straightforwardly, innocently and unemotionally describes life, and eventually, growth, at the sleep away school. Even though Stringer’s chronicle is a direct account of “the facts”, he manages to convey the raw nescience of a young boy trying to find his voice amid the clamor of puberty, peer pressure and physical separation that are the elements of his environment. Some of the descriptions are cruel and some are downright hilarious, just like the life of any 13 year old boy. By the end of the book, however, we can hear the voice of Stringer begin to emerge with conciliation, “Somewhere in there. …I start to change. … I’m just not so angry any more.”

In this memoir, Stringer has been able to weave discouragement into hope, anger into acceptance of what is, and struggle into satisfaction. This book should be read by all adolescent boys. They will be able to identify with many, if not all, the situations through which a young boy emerges during this time of change. Even though the book is not sentimental, it is a touching account of a tumultuous period of life.