BLIND SIGHTED

Smaller than most seventh graders, not cool, not interested and not achieving, Kirk is a junior who writes poetry during class and heads for the library to work at shelving books after school. A major reader, he thinks of himself as an observer, not a participant. Kirk and his mother have settled into a dull routine that allows his mother to work as a waitress and go drinking with her sleazy boyfriend whenever she likes, while Kirk takes care of himself. A pregnant woman at the library offers Kirk her job reading for a blind woman about the same time that Glenn, another lackadaisical student discovers that Kirk’s lyrics might go great with his guitar music. These lyrics interspersed as poems reveal Kirk’s verbal acuity and insight. Slowly, Kirk becomes drawn into a community of friends and connects with “Parole Girl” in his first foray into a sexual experience, all the time continuing his connection with Callie, who became blind in the same accident that killed her parents. All the typical teen-angst elements are here: drugs, sex, rock n’roll, guidance counselor contracts, and (when Mom takes off for California) the absentee parent. Fortunately, the vividness, wry humor, and believability of the dialogue, plus the emotional roller coaster that Kirk experiences, rescues readers. Things do not go according to plan and the unpredictability turns stock characters into believable people, including surprisingly, both Callie and Mom. Unexpectedly engaging. (Fiction. YA)