Leroy and the Old Man

by William E. Butterworth III

Book Overview

When Leroy witnesses a mugging, he must decide whether to remain safe and silent or speak up and reveal what he saw. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590427113
• ISBN13: 9780590427111
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent story

With the state of our communities being what they are, this is an excellent story that teaches some old time values, which are much needed in today's society. I can tell by the reviews of some of the kids that they fail to grasp what is important about this story. Immediately fell in love with "The Old Man" because he reminded me so much of my own grandfather and a time long gone. This story teaches values and self worth and mainly how to find pride in one's self and how to be a man. This story teaches what a lot of today's students are missing: Respect for elders and self, and there is no shame in good clean honest pay for good clean honest work. Children must step up to the plate and read between the lines, this story is set in the late 70s, but the lessons still apply.

The runaway witness

Leroy running away can chage his life for ever because he witness somthing. His was on his way home. And He got off of the elavator. And seen all of it! The murder, The next day he was on his way to his job there they was the wolves! The murders and they threaten him that if he told he will but cut!so her was scared and nervous. I dont like to read but this book was good.I like it because it was realalistic.

In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink Of an Eye In the blink of an eye everything can change. Leroy Chambers was just a regular 18 year-old guy working in a kitchen in downtown Chicago, when he gets off the elevator at the wrong time and witnesses a murder. The murderers were caught and they think he turned them in. Now he's hiding from them with his grand father. It's a great book and I liked how it showed what life was like in this area of Chicago with all the hatred and racism, where you have to sleep below the windows afraid of being shot and how it differs from the fun-loving life in Mississippi and New Orleans where your skin color doesn't matter and everyone is treated the same.

Leroy's Adventure

I read the book Leroy and the Old Man. I think that this book was a great book and I rate it a 10 out of 10. I liked this book because it had great details and you always knew what was going on. I never had to stop and read a sentance again because I didn't get it. Or, another example is, that the book always stayed on one subject at a time. It never went from one problem to another or anything. A book I thought was especially similiar to Leroy and the Old Man, was a book called The Outsiders. I think that they are similiar because they both have to do with surviving problems that they have with other groups of people. If I had to rate this book, I would rate it a perfect 10. I would also rate it iwth 5 stars.

Learning Values

Leroy is a teenager in the projects of Chicago. After he witnesses a gang-killing, his mother sends him to stay with his paternal grandfather, whom he has never met, in Mississippi.His grandfather, "the Old Man", takes him in and the teaching begins. Never preachy, always authentic, comparable in most ways to Walter Dean Myers' work. I've taught this in Middle Grades and High School, but even upper level elementary students enjoy having it read to them.This was Butterworth's final juvenile novel, before he found success under his pen-name, W. E. B. Griffin.