Put Your Pistol Down and Pick Up a Pen : The Story of a Teacher, a Tagger, and a Twenty-Two-Year Prison Sentence

Put Down Your Pistol and Pick Up a Pen, The Story of a Teacher, a Tagger, and a 22-Year Prison Sentence is a co-authored memoir that follows the unusual friendship of John Rodriguez, a 17-year old tagger, and Dennis Danziger, his high school English teacher.

When the teacher realizes that this tagger is a writing savant, he encourages him to pursue a college education.

But that spring, John is involved in a bar fight that turns violent and is sentenced to a 22 years in prison.

What follows is a story with echoes of Tuesdays with Morrie, with the teacher sending books and assignments to his once star student who finds redemption through his love of literature and literally writes his way out of prison to freedom.