I read Liccle Bit which was written by Alex Wheatle, I believe this book to be an inspiration for the youths of today. It also shows an average life of a young teenager being brought up on a estate and the pressure of being in a gang and of fitting it also shows a side that if you do eventually get caught up in a gang their is consequences, that are death or ending up in prison.

The story is about a young teenager called Lemar his nickname is ‘Liccle Bit’ as he is the second shortest guy in his year group. Lemar falls in love with the hottest girl in the year but his two best friends never tire of telling him he has no chance with Venetia or any other girl. Things aren’t much better at home, his mum is permanently hassled, his sister a frustrated young single mother and a dad who moved out years ago. Lemar dreams of having an easy life and money to make his life better and to have better clothes and shoes or maybe even a new phone.

However with the urge of making money he leads himself into a troubled life, when Venetia starts paying Lemar attention, he hopes this is the chance to get with Venetia. However a new gang war has started with young people being killed every week in the area and Lemar finds himself doing something sinister which is not him. One of the gangs in the area takes an interest to Lemar, asks him to do jobs and in return will give him money, but when he hears about the killings on the estate, Lemar is forced to question himself and was it his fault?

Liccle Bit was a very good book as I could relate to the character in the book, as I live in an estate and have the pressure of being in a gang. It also taught me that being in a gang can cause depression as you may have done something you didn’t want to do. However at the beginning of the Liccle Bit I found it quite hard to engage with the book as I found it boring and not interesting but as I got to the 4th chapter things began to kick off, I would recommend this book to anyone as it is a good book and you could learn something from it.