Synopsis

From the author

At Ballou Senior High, a crime-infested school in Washington, D.C., honor students have learned to keep their heads down. Like most inner-city kids, they know that any special attention in a place this dangerous can make you a target of violence. But Cedric Jennings will not swallow his pride, and with unwavering support from his mother, he studies and strives as if his life depends on it--and it does. The summer after his junior year, at a program for minorities at MIT, he gets a fleeting glimpse of life outside, a glimpse that turns into a face-on challenge one year later: acceptance into Brown University, an Ivy League school. At Brown, finding himself far behind most of the other freshmen, Cedric must manage a bewildering array of intellectual and social challenges. Cedric had hoped that at college he would finally find a place to fit in, but he discovers he has little in common with either the white students, many of whom come from privileged backgrounds, or the middle-class blacks. Having traveled too far to turn back, Cedric is left to rely on his faith, his intelligence, and his determination to keep alive his hope in the unseen--a future of acceptance and reward that he struggles, each day, to envision. (source: http://www.ronsuskind.com/hopeintheunseen)

From The Critics

Amazon.com
Ron Suskind won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1995 for his stories on Cedric Jennings, a talented black teenager struggling to succeed in one of the worst public high schools in Washington, D.C. Suskind has expanded those features into a full-length nonfiction narrative, following Jennings beyond his high-school graduation to Brown University, and in the tradition of Leon Dash's Rosa Lee and Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here, delivers a compelling story on the struggles of inner-city life in modern America. While it appears to have a happy ending (with Jennings earning a B average in his sophomore year), A Hope in the Unseen is not without a few caveats (at times, Jennings feels profoundly alienated from his white peers). Trite as it may sound to say, this book teaches a lesson about the virtue of perseverance, and it's definitely worth reading. --John J. Miller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal
YA-Cedric Jennings is the illegitimate son of an off-and-on drug dealer/ex-con and a hardworking, badly paid mother; it is her single-minded vision to have the boy escape the mean ghetto streets unscathed. Cedric has listened to her and is, as the book opens, an A student at a run-down, dispirited Washington, DC, high school, where he treads a thin line between being tagged a nerd and being beaten by gang leaders. Suskind, a Wall Street Journal reporter, follows the African-American youth through his last two years of high school and freshman year at Brown University. Inspirational sermons at a Pentecostal church, guidance from his mother, a love of black music and singing, and a refuge in the logic of math combine with the young man's determination and faith in the future to keep him focused on his goal of a topflight college education. Despite many low moments and setbacks, Jennings's story is one of triumph within both cultures, black and white, which together and separately put tremendous obstacles in his path out of the inner city. It is a privilege and an inspiration for readers to accompany Cedric on part of his long, difficult journey to maturity. His journey continues at this moment, since he is now a senior at Brown this fall. YAs of any background will be introduced to new worlds here.
Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
An offshoot of Suskind's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal articles on students at a crime-ridden Washington, DC, high school, this chronicles the journey of one of those students?Cedric Jennings?out of the ghetto through his first year at Brown. With mesmerizing detail, Suskind weaves Cedric's story: his illegitimacy, his fiercely protective mother, the black Pentecostal church that imbues him with a trust in God, the taunts and threats he suffers at Ballou High because he is a model student, the strangeness he feels at Brown, both culturally and socially, his academic unpreparedness, despite being the best at Ballou, and his survival at Brown against the odds. Suskind uses his reporter's skills brilliantly, portraying Cedric's outer and inner life and making an eloquent though unstated plea for affirmative action. Essential reading that provides some small hope for our social ills.
-?Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Boston Globe, Daniel Golden
...an absorbing, painstakingly reported book ... [I]t should be required reading in college education and sociology courses. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
How hard is it for a kid from the toughest high school in southeast Washington, D.C., to bootstrap himself into the Ivy League? Very, very, very hard, as Suskind reported in two Pulitzer Prize^-winning Wall Street Journal feature articles. He followed Cedric Jennings through the graffiti-strewn halls of Frank W. Ballou Senior High (where his academic success drew taunts and threats but also support from key teachers) and into an MIT program intended to help minority teens qualify for admission (where Cedric learned that, despite years of hard work, he knew much less than other kids--even other minority kids). A Hope in the Unseen retells that story and adds the next stage of the journey: rejected as "not MIT material," Cedric applies to other top schools, heads to Brown University, and gradually comes to terms with a world quite different from Ballou High. Suskind has spent years talking with Cedric, his working mother, his in-and-out-of-jail father, the clergyman who helped keep Cedric out of trouble, and students (at Ballou, MIT, and Brown) with a range of opinions about academic work and Cedric's single-mindedness. As readers celebrate one young man's singular persistence, they'll wonder how we can help more inner-city kids share Cedric's lifeline of hope. Mary Carroll --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Suskind, a journalist, tells the story of one African-American youth's rise from poverty-stricken Anacostia, in southeast Washington D.C., to the ivied halls of Brown University. In 1995, Suskind won a Pulitzer Prize for two articles he wrote for the Wall Street Journal on Cedric Jennings, an African- American student at one of the poorest schools in the capital, whose studiousness and ambition earn him a place in MIT's summer program for minority youth. Suskind's book expands on that story, extending it to Cedric's admission to Brown University and first year there. Suskind weaves interviews with Cedric, his family, teachers, and friends into a narrative that shows the challenges facing a ghetto youth bent on academic achievement. Paradoxically, both the inner-city code of youthful male behavior and the teachings of the Pentecostal church Cedric attends with his mother conspire to discourage intellectual distinction. The drama of the story is in the mediations Cedric learns to make between the inherited and the chosen, yet ``unseen,'' parts of his life. Suskind plays to the sense of closure and, in this case, a happy ending the very format of a book (unlike a newspaper article) encourages, but cannot really achieve here, since Cedric's life at college, and beyond, is still in process. By the end of the book, the young man has forgiven his high school nemeses, been reconciled with his absent father, and found social acceptance at Brown. Left hanging is the question of the ultimate success of Cedrics quest, which he is still only beginning. One senses the existence of conflicts unresolved and questions unanswered. This engaging success story leaves behind a troubling aftertaste of personal and social wounds that appear to have been too artfully healed. ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.