A lad discovers that the path to greater self-esteem is paved with Words in this angst-ridden, occasionally funny import. Brian might bill himself a “soccer superstar, boy genius and red hot babe magnet,” but in truth, he’s a shy underachiever—until he borrows a certain pink and purple pen from a classmate whose Mom is a renowned romance writer. Suddenly, without conscious effort, he’s dashing off dewy tales of auburn-haired beauties with thin cotton blouses, or for a bio quiz, a melodramatic tearjerker featuring a frog named Miranda who sacrifices herself to rescue her heartthrob Giles from dissection. Interspersed with handwritten sheets, crudely sketched pre-adolescent wish-fulfillment drawings and small flip-page sequences of frogs hatching and coming to gruesome ends, Brian’s bemused account builds to the triumphant discovery that, even without that particular pen, he wields the Writer’s power to shape his narrative as he pleases. Tulloch shoehorns in so many subplots, extraneous characters and earnest passages of creative writing advice that the tale seems overstuffed, but aspiring young writers, at least, will appreciate Brian’s epiphany. (Fiction. 11-13)
