Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz by Mona Ruiz and co-author Geoff Boucher is a motivational piece. I like this book because it relates to my life growing up. I might have not grown up in Santa Ana, but I did have the same issue of where my father disliked the gang scene. Knowing that my brother was associated with them, made it even more exciting to me when I hung around him and his friends. This was similar to Ruiz’s experience. At that time gangs had taken over a major part in my life. To give loyalty to a gang that wasn’t going to do nothing for me was pointless. After going through a phase of me getting into trouble and my grades declining, I had come to realization that I needed start to taking my education seriously again, when I had
