Dirty Jersey

Dirty #1

by Phillip Thomas Duck

From zero to hero what's cool at Eric Posey's high school? A player's swagger, a baller's style, and game enough to catch every girl. Unfortunately, Eric is seriously uncool;unlike his popular sister, Kenya, who sings like an angel. But forget the choir; Kenya wants the fabulous life;bad boys and fly girls.A chance encounter with Fiasco, one of the hottest rappers around, gives Eric intro into the world of the "Dirty Jersey" crew, where he's introduced to everyone and everything. Suddenly, Eric is cool and has access to anything he's ever wanted. Never mind that Fiasco isn't exactly a good guy; so what? But so what has a price. And Fiasco has just named it: Kenya.

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Phillip Thomas Duck is the author of several traditionally published adult and young adult novels. EXCUSE ME, MISS(Romantic Suspense) and ONE QUICK KISS(Sexy Short Stories) are his first two independently published e-books. His third, MODESTY, was released February 2011 and his latest crime thriller, Distracted in April 2011. He resides in New Jersey with his wife and daughters.

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book I've ever read. It would almost be worth burning all the books in the world to make sure that no one has to read this utter garbage again. I wouldn't use the pages for toilet paper. If someone asks you for a book to read, and all you have is "Dirty Jersey" and Hitler's "Mein Kampf," give them the latter.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dirty Jersey
Eric finds himself in the middle of a fight with a (white) boy named Benny egged on by Crah who doesn’t like how he (Benny) told Eric’s sister to “back that thang up” Even though Kenya herself did and seemed to have no problem with it. Crash threatens that if he doesn’t fight Benny, he’ll be the one that gets his ass kicked (by Crash). Eric gets in a small jab, but the two are interrupted by a teacher and take off.

It’s shown that Crash is a bully and has given Eric the nickname “Poser” and likes to harass him about keeping a notebook that has poetry inside. All the other kids also think Eric is a lame. But Eric gets the balls one day to humiliate Crash in class and feeds him the answer E. Lynn Harris as the answer to the English teacher’s question to name a poet. Not only is E Lynn Harris not a poet (he’s a novelist), he likes to write about gay men. (Crash says he enjoys his work and has read it more than once). So Crash beats him up after school. Benny surprisingly tries to jump in, but finds himself on the ground attempting a move to come at Crash that doesn’t pan out.

Kenya and her girl Lark are hanging out at the mall, when Kenya’s “boyfriend” walks in with another girl. Kenya and the girl exchange insults and then Monique pulls Ricky away. Later that night tho, Ricky gets Kenya to give him another chance by remembering everything about the night she wore boy shorts for him. Kenya tells Lark it doesn’t change anything that she has a boyfriend now and invites her to go out with her but as always Lark hangs up the phone quickly without saying good-bye claiming it’s about her parents being strict.

Eric decides to walk away from his relationship with Benny after his (white) grandmother makes a racist comment about his mother (black women were meant to wipe white women’s asses). On the way home, (on the bus) Eric runs into Crash, but surprisingly he doesn’t do anything. He just tells him his stop has come up. Eric breaks down to his mother about how everyone hates him, and to make it worse Kenya comes home and starts putting him down over “the incident”. Ugly words are exchanged back and forth and then it comes out that Crash came to Kenya (because he likes her) and wasn’t gonna fight Eric.

Kenya told him to do it however, to teach Eric a lesson. But then *she* was the one who wound up paying the price because Eric is such a nobody that the attention went to her. Hollywood (their mom) interrupts and Kenya and Eric leave (after Hollywood tells him to stop being a punk). Eric then goes to Lark (secretly) and asks her for lessons on how to be cool. She tells him go to the mall and observe the popular set and imitate how they act.

Because they’re now official, Kenya and Ricky go to this guy’s party (Donell). Donell also has a thing for Kenya. Kenya didn’t think he cared about being popular so she brushed him off. At the party, Donell tries to warn her that Ricky is a player and that Monique got sent away because she was pregnant. Kenya tries to confront Ricky about Monique but he brushes it off. So she gets her number out of his phone. Ricky thinks he’s gonna get it from Kenya but she instead plays him and tells him “her mom wants her home”. He gets pissed like the punk he is and drops her off.

Eric is hit on by a beautiful girl at(Endia) but because he’s more Urkel than Stephan he screws it up. A guy with a beard points this out, and gives him some tips. It turns out he’s a famous rapper (Fiasco) and he gives Eric his number so he can keep him relevant with the younger set. Kenya gets Monique’s address and has a talk with her mother-who more or less confirms her daughter is pregnant-. Her mother wants to speak to Ricky. Finally after he comes to the phone-mad- she hands it to Monique’s mother. Eric is picked up by Fiasco’s ride or die Mya. He meets up with Fiasco whose trying to get in the zone for a new album under his alter ego- Murdaa that will showcase his harder side. (He’s been getting flack for the pop stuff he’s done and wants his street creed back).

Eric is welcomed into his clique. He’s given a medallion and offered the DJ tattoo. He’s then shown Fiasco’s warehouse (with gun range). He accepts Fiasco’s invitation to be down. Everyone starts to freeze Kenya out for snitching on Ricky. Ricky’s mom and Monique’s mom made him leave and go South with Monique to take responsibility for his baby. Eric surprisingly defends Kenya. Then she realizes this is what he deals with all the time. She asks him how he does it and he tells her he just does. Even though it’s hard he remembers he has value. Donell picks her up on her walk home (no one will give her a ride) and tells her Ricky offered her to him and called her a “throwaway”.

He tells her that the poem he remembered that impressed her so much was because he saw that she’d marked it in a book and *he’d* remembered it. When Ricky asked how to get her back he helped him memorize it. He also says he punched him for disrespecting her. Kenya invites him in, but he says he won’t be the one to take advantage of her. Kenya decides maybe he’ll be the one to call her “Kay” Ricky’s nickname for her after saying she reminded him of “Bey” (YEEEEAH! The girl on the cover on the next book, Beyonce she is NOT!!

Eric continues to be harassed by the students until Mya comes to pick him up, starts handing out Fiasco’s promotional CD, and mentions Eric knows him. Then she takes him to a video shoot. Mya and Fiasco get into an argument and can’t shoot their love scene in the video. It’s getting late and Eric is worried about getting home so he calls Kenya. When she gets there she talks him into meeting Fiasco. They both end up being in his video’s. Eric gets to play the role of a thug. (Another girl replaces Mya in the video. Also Eric and Mya bond a little over both being bullied as kids). The clip is dropped because Kenya isn’t in it her status doesn’t change. Eric is da shit now. Fiasco calls Kenya to hang out, but one of his crew (Alonzo) picks her up with plans to take her back to the warehouse to molest her. We find out that a) Fiasco is Mya’s half-brother and b) she’s “Sister”. Mya, Fiasco, and Eric get to the warehouse in time and take Alonzo out.

My Thoughts:
This wasn’t good! The plots were lack luster. Eric’s plot was just that he was a lame and then he meets a rapper and all of a sudden, he’s hot. Kenya’s wasn’t much better. A guy who basically TOLD YOU what he was about showed you his ass! SURPRISE! SURPRISE! I wasn’t impressed with Eric. Not because he was a “nerd” but because he whined too much about who he wasn’t and what he didn’t have. And I GET IT! TRUST ME I DO! But at least I will give it to Eric for TRYING. Although, it’s like this. People who give you a hard time because you aren’t who THEY want you to be, I had to learn the hard way aren’t really your friends. I’m not even sure why Eric thought Crash was his “friend”. Eric got it right when he said despite what they thought of him he values himself. Ok so I just hope in the next book he remembers this and doesn’t switch up and turn into what I use to call back in the day a “studio ganster”.

I do like despite how HORRIBLE Kenya treated him, he showed up and out for her when the tables were turned. I HATED Kenya! First of all Beyonce? I think the cover artist must be blind. Then Kenya had the STANKEST attitude. She’s foul to her brother for NO REASON! She ENCOURAGES a guy to kick his ass to “teach him a lesson” for not being cool. She’s superficial and her world seems to revolve around image. She doesn’t pick Donnel because he doesn’t care about fitting in. I really wasn’t even sorry she got played by Ricky. I thought that everything she got was WELL DESERVED. The only thing I don’t think she deserved was what Alonzo was about to do to her. I’m glad it got explained who “Sister” was but it was still an odd placement in the book and the end felt RUSHED! I had to read this one over to give it better review than I did the first time, but past this I don’t see myself reading this again.

Rating: 4 There really wasn’t anything I liked about it. I guess if anything Eric’s character and believing in who he was despite continuing to get knocked down was the strongest part of the whole book. Other than that it was lack-

[Jasmine Florence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dirty Jersey, was a book about a girl named Kenya who is a junior and her younger brother Eric. Kenya very popular, she has a beautiful voice and good looks on top of that. But on the flip side her brother Eric is unpopular and is teased and tormented everyday for being such a loser. All Eric wants is to be popular and liked by everyone. One day while in the mall Eric meets a famous rapper by the name of Fiasco, Eric knows that if everyone finds out about him knowing Fiasco the teasing and bullying would all stop. While Kenya is enjoying her Junior year she find out some shocking news about her boyfriend,Ricky, might have gotten a girl pregnant before him and Kenya linked up. Kenya is basically determined to find out the truth about the pregnancy and makes a trip to the Monique's house and is greeted by the Monique's mother, who tells Kenya that her daughter is in fact pregnant. Kenya is furious about this news and when Monique's mom asks for Ricky's number, Kenya gives it to her not knowing that she has made the mistake of a lifetime. Kenya returns to school the following day to dirty looks and terrible name calling. Kenya later finds out that word got out about her talking to Monique's mom, and that Monique's mom had called Ricky and arrange for him to be sent to live with her daughter to take care of their baby in Mississippi. Kenya goes from a big somebody to a lame nobody in the blink of an eye. She finally sees what it feels like to be her brother and feels bad for how she treated him. Meanwhile everyone finds out that Eric knows Fiasco and Eric instantly turns into someone everyone wants to hang around. Eric introduces Fiasco to his sister in hopes of boosting his sister's reputation, another big mistake. Kenya is picked up from school one day thinking that it's Fiasco in the black Land Rover but it turns out to be a worker of Fiasco who is up to no good with Kenya and tries to rape her. Eric calls Fiasco thinking that Kenya is with him but realizes she's not and Fiasco automatically knows what the guy is up to with Kenya. Fiasco, his sister Mya and Eric, rush to where they think Kenya might be and make it there just in time. I didn't really like the ending of the book because i feel like it was kind of rushed in a way and didn't end on a good note. This book compares alot to other books in the series as far as the real life situations the characters encounter. It was a fairly good book and I would probably recommend it to someone who is maybe in the 7th or 8th grade.

[India · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dirty Jersey is a two stroy person book. What i mean by that is the book tells two stroies at once from two differnt point of views. Brother to a sister and lame to a popular. The first chapter starts with Eric Posey's story, he starts off alwyas getting picked on and getting into to fights with the high school bully. While his life is going from bad to worse his sisters life is also going down the drain because of her brother and her love life. Kenya , Eric's younger sister has the brains, beauty and looks. But recently she has been known as the sister of the boy who peeded his pants while fighting the biggest guy in school. Also soon finding out that the roumors about her ex boyfriend about having a new rich girlfriend was true. Seeing him with her in the mall just made her world crash and go up side down when her and his new girl got into a disagreement in the store.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was about an unpopular boy, Eric, and how he becomes "cool" after meeting and befriending a famous rapper. I found this book to really drag, but wanted to finish it so I could review the entire book. I felt that the pop culture references was a little overdone. And if some people really do talk and think like the people in this book, I think I would go crazy having to hear it all of the time. I found the characters to be either boring or completely unlikable. I did like the meeting of Kenya and the mother of Monique, and how Eric wishes rappers wouldn't usually always have to rap about sex, guns, and violence, but it wasn't enough to make me enjoy the book. It just wasn't my kind of story, as much as I wanted to like it.

[Diane Mankowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as urban fiction for teens went, I liked this one, though it followed a stereotypical plot that requires readers to suspend their beliefs. Eric is the geeky boy that's being tormented physically and emotionally at school. A chance encounter, late in the book, with a rap star provides him with automatic street cred and elevates his status, especially when he's picked up in an expensive status style car. But, the rapper's not all about giving, he wants Eric to offer up his sister, Kenya, as repayment for his help. What I loved about this book is that Kenya's a reader and she mentions authors like Toni Morrison and Terry McMillan and their works within the text.

[Jamika · Rating 4 out of 5]

What ive learned about this book Dirty Jersey is that the main character Eric Posey thinks he's a player's swagger,a baller's style and get's all the girls but unfortinetley he's unpopular anlike his little sister Kenya who sings like an angel. 4get the choir Kenya wants to have a fabulous life. bad boys and fly girls. a chance encounter with fiasco one of the hottest rappers around, gives Eric 'entree into the world of the "Dirty Jersey" crew where he is introduced to everyone and everything. finally Eric is cool and has acess to anything he's ever wanted. but all of a sudden fiasco want's Eric's little sista Kenya.

[Jabehac7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amasing and talks to me. i love books like these because it happends to alot of teens now a days. So far eric just got to know Fiasco (He's a rapper thats just coming out) and he wants his help. this is really big to him because in school he's known as the lamnest boy ever. Everyone there hates him, including his sister. She thinks hving him as a brother is slowing her down. People around the school stay talki trash bout him and all he want's in to be the cool guy and the one everyone likes.

[Alexis Moore]

I selected this book because I love to read books that deal with drama. Dirty Jersey dealt with a guy name Eric he was a high school student that always wanted to become popular. His sister Kenya was popular during school everyone liked her. But then the dynamics changed and he became the popular one. This book best quality is that I couldn't get my eyes out of the book. The worst thing about this book is how the book ended. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves to read about drama. Overall Dirty Jersey was a great book I would most def read it again.

[Lanetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt really sorry for Eric Posey. He wanted to make friends the wrong way: by not being himself, and becoming someone else that he is not. His sister, Kenya, enacted the same way Eric felt after she found out she wasn;t as popular as she used to be. Society today depends upon the media to determine who they are and how they should act toawrds others, which is definitely not good. This book showed a valuable lesson about this topic.

[Breyanafrazier · Rating 4 out of 5]

its ok i like books like this but i think because i read dirty south first that i cant get into but i like but i do not get how him and benny are best friend and they fighting because he was looking at his older sister butt and i love when crash was saying a fight a fight black and while if the black do not then we all jump in i never hued no one say this before i think race think but i really like the book so far ....

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

dirty jersey has up to date urban mood to it. so far the book expresses what the generation of teens today are engaged in and experiencing.i like dirty jersey because i can definetly relate to the main issues in the novel. i look forward to finishin dirty jersey soon.

[Jasmine Florence]

So far it's a pretty good book but I don't know much about it yet because I just started reading it. I choose this book because I've been reading other books in series like this one and wanted to try out a new series to see how I liked it.

[Daniel Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Young Adult books.

[Tyquashia]

i love these books and especially this 1

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

this dude was treated horribly then of course he's popular..so phony

[Precious]

I think the book was based on real life experience such as sex, bully-ing, and popularity. Its also a good book for teens. It helps yu make your life way better.

[Taliah]

This book is about a bot name eric and eric iss goin to school but its is this bully name crash but thats not his real name he do not like his real name s
3

[Iforeverreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh ,oh! i remember this one! awesome ladies , awesome! girls its a must read!

[Shymier Hibbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book’s setting is important to the story. Eric, Kenya, and their mother live in this little beat up neighborhood and they don’t have a lot of money. If the family had money and lived in a nicer neighborhood, I think that Alonzo would have been less tempted to pick up Kenya. He probably would think that Eric and Kenya’s mother could afford to hire someone to kill him, if she found out. Eric was the second lamest kid in his school. His former best friend, Benny, was the lamest kid. The only reason he was lamer than Eric was because he was white and nerdy. When Benny’s grandmother said a few racist comments the first time she saw Eric, he was so upset. He ended his best friendship with Benny because of something Benny’s senile grandmother said. It is important because instead of hanging out with Benny like he usually does, Eric went to the mall because he wanted to see how cool people were in their natural habitat, where he met Fiasco. Kenya was the most popular girl at school. She had the looks, the grades, and the voice of the angels. She used to date Ricky Williams, the finest guy at school. But when she wouldn’t give up “the goodies” (as they refer to virginity in the book), he broke up with her. In their time of separation, Ricky got with another girl and got her pregnant, but nobody knew. Then he got back with Kenya, and Kenya talked to the other girl’s mother and told on Ricky. Everyone in school then labeled her a “snitch” and no one would talk to her. When she lost her popularity, she finally understood what Eric went through everyday. The structure of this book is a little different, to my liking. The story was told by three different characters: Eric, Kenya, and a character named sister, who was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Sister turns out to be Fiasco’s little sister, Mya, and the mother’s boyfriend turns out to be Alonzo.