Awards

• Winner of Michael L. Printz Honor Book.

Overview

""The Catcher in the Rye meets On the Road""*-The Printz Honor book is a classic in the making! September 1973: The beginning of Karl Shoemaker's senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio. For years, Karl's been part of ""the Madman Underground""- kids forced to attend group therapy during school. Karl has decided that he is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act-and be-Normal. But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has two after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother . . . and a huge attitude. Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker. *The Horn Book

Full Product Details

9780142417027

Table of Contents

Reviews

Rarely will you read something so lovingly vulgar, so fiercely warmhearted, and so exuberantly expansive . . . the culmination comes off like a teenage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . - Booklist , starred review<br><br> His narration is so easy and engaging, so sweet and funny, so astonishingly truthful that teens will rip through these 500-plus pages and want more. - School Library Journal , starred review<br><br> Darkly comic . . . as troubled, relevant, relatable and hilarious as J.D. Salinger. - Los Angeles Times <br><br>

Rarely will you read something so lovingly vulgar, so fiercely warmhearted, and so exuberantly expansive . . . the culmination comes off like a teenage One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . - Booklist , starred review<br><br> His narration is so easy and engaging, so sweet and funny, so astonishingly truthful that teens will rip through these 500-plus pages and want more. - School Library Journal , starred review<br><br> Darkly comic . . . as troubled, relevant, relatable and hilarious as J.D. Salinger. - Los Angeles Times

Author Information

This is the acclaimed novelist John Barnes's first book for teenagers.

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