The Thomas Family Values is a collection of short stories that follows siblings Andre and Tameka Thomas through a typical school year. Through the characters the readers are given insight into school and social issues facing our urban children today. School issues include bullying, teacher/ student dynamics (teacher praise and snubbing). Social issues include: affect of parent incarceration, having compassion for others and affect previous events has on today's kids. Stories in the book are adaptations of real life situations and give honest depictions of school life for inner city students. The book tries to balance between the images the media and others have placed on African Americans students. And the realities of the challenges social and school issues place on our kids.