Show Them You’re Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year before College

I became a Jeff Hobbs fan on reading his book, “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace.” He is a writer with a gift for storytelling and Fitzgerald-worthy prose. Those talents are amply evident in this book.
“Show Them You’re Good” is timely in its subject matter – focusing on those high pressure months before college (public school…not the private school “Desperate Parents” edition), college admissions in our culture being the worth definer on the horizon from birth…and sometimes pre-birth. It is also an inside look at coming-of-age boys separated by “22 miles of pavement” and socioeconomic realities. But this book is absent any predictable heavy-handed agenda. Hobbs is too insightful a writer to draw 2-dimensional characters – “Compton Kid”, “Beverly Hills Kid.”
This book is far more poignant and lyrical than the title suggests. Hobbs is an empathetic writer who draws nuanced portraits of 17-year-old boys on the verge of becoming men. Their stories are set against the environments in which they live, but each voice is unique – their family challenges, their histories and their dreams. Hobbs captures the moments in their day to day lives…in the pressure cooker of college applications but also the silliness of childhood friends about to go their separate ways. Sad at times. Also, laugh out loud funny.
What he ends up capturing is the “magic hour” in these lives….that most colorful, precious, fleeting moment before it all will change.

Jeff Hobbs’s book reveals the extraordinary capacity of human beings placed in often extreme situations to overcome obstacles. In that sense this is a heartening and optimistic work. At the same time the account of systematic failures in our society is deeply disturbing. It is also worth noting that even people who come from prosperous and privileged backgrounds face many hurdles in the process of growing up. I was deeply touched by the goodness of the teachers portrayed in this book, perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Hobbs’s work. They battle every day to try to help. The overall quality of this book goes beyond even the best work published in journals such as “The New Yorker”. It is an outstanding effort of great empathy and truthfulness. Ellis Wasson

Jeff Hobbs has done it again! Thoroughly enjoyed this book. I grew up in South LA, attended a high school close to APB and got accepted to Stanford. I also knew people who went to Beverly Hills High School. It’s extremely challenging for these students to navigate the college process virtually alone. Yet their abilities to adapt is one the advantages that they have over others who have been hand-held their entire time in school. It’s amazing the time he spent with each of these young men from visiting their homes and attending classes, sporting events and extra curriculum activities – especially in South LA with the APB students. He allows readers to live inside these young men’s lives and see things like – the support in some families and the dysfunction in others. Many of these students are on their own to navigate the college process and yet are still able to compete with other private school and well off students where college counselor to student ratio is closer to 30 to 1 vs. 300 to 1.

Jeff Hobbs takes a deep dive into the lives and college quest of four very different young men from very different high schools. More than simply a story about the pitfalls of navigating applying to college, this book lets you inside the lives of these young men to give a no holds barred look at the challenge of being a young man growing up in a big city. Highly recommended for anyone applying to college, or anyone who wants to get a look at what it takes to go from a boy to a man in today’s world.

This is a great book! If you enjoy bio stories written by an excellent writer, buy this book. This writer is a wonderful story teller.

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