Story Overview

Mentor tells a story about a man who offered a fatherless twelve-year-old boy the gift of his time, his knowledge, and most of all, his love and friendship. In return, the boy rewarded these gifts with abuse and finally a cowardly act of treachery and betrayal, the enormity of which stretches the limits of human belief. And when his betrayal had been exposed and severe punishment loomed, the young boy received yet another gift—perhaps the most precious gift any one being can bestow upon another—the man forgave him.

Setting and Themes

Mentor takes the reader onto the streets of New York City to race headlong over its pavement, from schoolyards, city streets, and youthful gang hideouts to lovers parks. The fast-moving novel combines adolescent love with explicit demonstrations of what happens as children grow up in the teeming cities.