In this portrait of a moral dilemma, Cheripko (Imitate the Tiger, 1996, etc.) presents an insecure 15-year-old boy with a deformed arm who can’t decide which is more important: the approval of his friends or telling the truth about a sexual attack he witnessed. Jeremy, or “Rat,” as he is known in his high school, begins by reluctantly testifying against a popular basketball coach, whom he saw assaulting a cheerleader. With the coach convicted and sent to jail, the entire school, and especially the basketball team, ostracize Jeremy. The school’s science teacher takes over as the new coach, imposing on the team not only strong discipline and excellent basketball knowledge, but also a strict moral code. He encourages Jeremy to remain as the team manager despite the hostility of the players, especially Simpson, who threatens violence. Jeremy first believes he’s done wrong by telling the truth, yet Simpson’s uncontrollable behavior appalls him. Cheripko, however, doesn’t portray Simpson as merely a cardboard-cutout villain; instead, he allows readers to discover that Simpson suffers from a handicap less visible but just as debilitating as Jeremy’s withered arm. There’s enough basketball action to attract fans of the sport and the drama keeps flowing. Written with honesty and insight into teenaged angst, this should easily maintain young readers’ interest as well as serve as a discussion starter. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-59078-034-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Eddie, a young Mexican-American scraping by in the mean streets of Fresno, California, counts four dead relatives and one dead friend in the opening, in-your-face lines of this new novel from Soto (Snapshots from the Wedding, p. 228, etc.). In bleak sentences of whispered beauty, Eddie tells how he dropped out of vocational college and is attempting to get by with odd jobs. His aunt and friends want him to avenge the recent murder of his cousin, but Eddie just wants to find a way out. Everything he tries turns soura stint doing yard work ends when his boss's truck is stolen on Eddie's watchand life is a daily battle for survival. This unrelenting portrait is unsparing in squalid details: The glue sniffers, gangs, bums, casual knifings, filth, and stench are in the forefront of a life without much hope``Laundry wept from the lines, the faded flags of poor, ignorant, unemployable people.'' Soto plays the tale straightthe only sign of a ``happy'' ending is in Eddie's joining the Navy. The result is a sort of Fresno Salaam Bombay without the pockets of humanity that gave the original its charm. A valuable tale, it's one that makes no concessions. (glossary) (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-15-201333-4
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1997
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