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Jeff Hobbs

Biography

Jeff Hobbs

Jeff Hobbs is the author of THE SHORT AND TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was made into the 2024 film Rob Peace. He is also the author of CHILDREN OF THE STATE, SHOW THEM YOU'RE GOOD and THE TOURISTS. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Jeff Hobbs

Books by Jeff Hobbs

by Jeff Hobbs - Biography, Nonfiction, Social Sciences

For many kids, a mistake made at age 13 or 14 --- often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain --- can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy. In CHILDREN OF THE STATE, Jeff Hobbs challenges any preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works --- and demonstrates in brilliant, piercing prose that no one so young should ever be considered irredeemable. He presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors and --- most importantly --- children.

by Jeff Hobbs - Nonfiction, Social Issues, Social Sciences

Four teenage boys are high school seniors at two very different schools within the city of Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation with nearly 700,000 students. Blending complex social issues with each individual experience, Jeff Hobbs takes us deep inside these boys’ worlds. The foursome includes Carlos, the younger son of undocumented delivery workers, who aims to follow in his older brother’s footsteps and attend an Ivy League college; Tio harbors serious ambitions to become an engineer, despite a father who doesn’t believe in him; Jon struggles to put distance between himself and his mother, who is suffocating him with her own expectations; and Owen, raised in a wealthy family, can’t get serious about academics but knows he must.

by Jeff Hobbs - Biography, Nonfiction

When author Jeff Hobbs arrived at Yale University, he became fast friends with the man who would be his college roommate for four years, Robert Peace. Robert’s life was rough from the beginning in the crime-ridden streets of Newark in the 1980s. But Robert was a brilliant student, and it was supposed to get easier when he was accepted to Yale. But it didn’t get easier. Robert carried with him the difficult dual nature of his existence, “fronting” in Yale and at home.