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Laura McNeal; Tom McNeal Crushed (Readers Circle)
Knopf Books for Young Readers 2007 0375831215 / 9780375831218 Paperback New
0375831215 0375831215 From School Library Journal Grade 10 Up?The characters in this novel have their secrets and make false assumptions about others, causing them all to be crushed in some way. Audrey's mother died when the girl was young and her father is in financial trouble. Clyde's mother is dying of cancer. Wickham, born of an affair 18 years earlier and new in town, is running from his own secret. The trouble begins when he romances Audrey, who is quickly taken with his seeming sophistication. He, on the other hand, is looking for someone to help him graduate and relies on her academic assistance. Painfully shy Clyde also has a crush on her and uses his father's computer program to investigate Wickham's past. When he tries to share what he discovers with Audrey, she rejects him. In the meantime, a slanderous paper is circulating secrets about students and teachers. When cornered by the school bully, Audrey tells him that Clyde is the author, even though she lacks evidence. This sets in motion the revelation of other secrets and the breaking of hearts. With the exception of Audrey's friend Lea's off-key change in personality, characters and situations ring true. Readers will sympathize with these individuals, some of whom mature, and some of whom do not. This quiet, sophisticated story will appeal to a small, mature audience.?Karen Hoth, Marathon Middle/High School, FL Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Booklist Gr. 9-12. Set in the same small town as Crooked (1999) and Zipped (2003),the wife-and-husband team's third novel similarly portrays teens groping for equanimity in hostile territory. Private-school expatriate Audrey and her like-minded friends, newcomers to Jemison High School, feel "like pet rabbits released into the wild." Where there is prey, there are predators, and from the moment that suave Wickham asks Audrey to help him cheat in physics, readers will guess that the naive teen has been targeted by the high-school equivalent of a wolf. Though Audrey's perspective on bliss punctured by betrayal dominates the novel, the absorbing third-person narrative periodically shifts close to Wickham and to Audrey's shy, rebuffed admirer, Clyde, both defined by troubling circumstances at home. Despite the quirky sensibility embraced by Audrey and her pals, who share cucumber sandwiches at lunch and listen to Gilbert and Sullivan, their individuality eventually becomes submerged in a contrived, overburdened story line. But once ensnared by the romance and the tidy-but-satisfying servings of passion, outrage, and poignancy, few teens will reject this on literary principal. Jennifer Mattson Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Price:
3.00 USD
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Tom McNeal Goodnight, Nebraska
Random House 1998 067945733X / 9780679457336 First Edition Hardcover Fine
067945733X 067945733X Stated First Edition. Fine in Fine dust jacket.Editorial Reviews Amazon Review Randall Hunsacker, the protagonist of Tom McNeal's first novel, Goodnight, Nebraska, is only 17, but already he has two strikes against him: his father's death when Randall was thirteen led to a succession of "stepfathers" moving through his life and the last one, Lenny, Randall has shot. The shooting, a suicide attempt, and a stint in juvenile hall is what brings Randall to the small town of Goodnight, Nebraska--a place where he hopes to start over. He gets a job, earns a place on the high school football team and even starts dating one of the cheerleaders; things are looking up for Randall. But in a town like Goodnight--Hicksburg, to Randall, or ShitdeVille--what goes up must eventually come down. And so it is for Randall--he gets injured during a football game and his girlfriend, thinking he's dead, announces they are engaged, and before he knows it, he is married, living in a trailer, facing a life that seems to have dead-ended before it even got started. Appearances can be deceiving, however. To Randall and his wife, Marcy, Goodnight seems like the last place on earth; he never imagined himself coming here, she never stopped dreaming about getting out. Much of McNeal's novel has to do with the gradual disintegration of Randall and Marcy's marriage; at the same time it limns a warm portrait of a middle-American town that may not be very exciting to live in, but one where people know they can count on each other in a pinch. It takes Marcy leaving--and Randall going after her--to finally teach them both that there's really no place like Goodnight. From Publishers Weekly The downward life trajectory of a youth from a blue-collar family who is unmoored by his father's death and the discovery of his mother's and sister's promiscuity is at the heart of this impressive but flawed first novel. After an impulsive act of violence in the book's opening chapters (which contain the narrative's most assured writing), Utah high-school football star and budding mechanic Randall Hunsacker avoids reform school by agreeing to resettle in Goodnight, Nebraska, a tiny community that McNeal evokes with some fine insights into small-town life. There, after first alienating the townspeople and confirming his role of outsider, Randall becomes, in a stroke of bizarre good fortune, a minor hero and soon marries the town belle, Marcy Lockhardt. Randall's subsequent behavior, though arising from his wounded and distrustful nature, is less than credible, as he again sabotages his chances. The biggest problem here is that Randall's eventual redemption is too schematic. In fact, there are too many instances in which a events are determined more by contrivances than by credible characterization. McNeal often explains (rather than shows) his characters' traits with portentous solemnity and adds such explanatory statements as "in other words," and other clumsy parenthetical asides. These awkward devices, and McNeal's attempt to broaden the narrative by interweaving the lives of many members of the Goodnight community, result in a lack of focus. Yet McNeal is a talented writer, and there are enough affecting characters and moving scenes in this novel to bode well for his future books. 30,000 first printing. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Price:
11.99 USD
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Laura McNeal; Tom McNeal Zipped (Knopf Readers Circle)
Knopf Books for Young Readers 2004 0375830987 / 9780375830983 Paperback New
0375830987 0375830987 From School Library Journal Grade 9 Up-Well-realized, sympathetic teen and adult characters populate this novel packed with family problems, romance, and wry humor. Fifteen-year-old Mick Nichols opens his stepmother's e-mail by mistake and discovers that Nora is having an affair. Unable to confront her or tell his father, he turns surly and uncommunicative at home. Meanwhile, he's embarked on a confusing friendship with a college girl and a budding romance with a high school classmate, the beautiful Lisa Doyle. Mick has a troubled relationship with his mother, who left the family years ago, and has always admired-as well as had a mild crush on-his young, attractive stepmother. Her affair shatters his illusions. While he searches for clues to the identity of Nora's lover, he also gets to know Lisa better on their weekend job. Obstacles stand in the way of love, including her interest in an off-limits Mormon missionary. Mick commits an uncharacteristic act of vandalism aimed at his stepmother's lover, and ultimately has an emotionally satisfying confrontation with Nora. The teen's romance with Lisa finally takes off, and several other subplots wrap up as well, sometimes too neatly. Mick learns that the adults whom he has idolized have their own problems, and that relationships are far more complex than he ever imagined. Refreshingly, Mick's father and stepmother are fully fleshed out characters, not stereotypes. This is a believable novel that will especially appeal to teens interested in moral ethics and human dynamics. Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Product Description WHEN 15-YEAR-OLD MICK Nichols opens the wrong e-mail, he learns a terrible secret: His stepmother is having an affair with a man named Alexander Selkirk. Mick is stunned. Should he tell his father, confront his stepmother, or keep it all to himself? And who, exactly, is Alexander Selkirk? Mick becomes obsessed with the infidelity, in spite of some serious distractions. Distractions like Lisa Doyle, the religious field-hockey player with the coppery red hair. Like the surprising (but appreciated) affections of Myra Vidal, a famously gorgeous college freshman with a secret of her own. And at the moment Mick discovers Selkirk's true identity, he realizes his problems are all zipped up together-and that he may have to go to drastic lengths to untangle them. "The McNeals spin a wonderfully rich story."-Kirkus Reviews "A well-honed novel. . . . Readers will be sucked in."-Publishers Weekly From the Hardcover edition.
Price:
3.00 USD
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