- Hardcover: 166 pages
- Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books (J) (March 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0152014675
- ISBN-13: 978-0152014674
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this overdrawn yet thrilling high drama, 14-year-old Kyle is fed up with his overprotective mother and her "cop" boyfriend and is eager to take off to Michigan to spend the summer with his father. However, his Midwest vacation takes on nightmarish proportions as the teenager is drawn into his father's circle of friends, a group of right-wing militants prepared to take the law into their own hands. Miklowitz's (Standing Tall, Looking Good) taut narrative traces Kyle's descent into a world ruled by hatred, racism and violence. Kyle's father, after presenting his son with a camouflage suit ("Back home, if [Kyle] wore this, he'd be the envy of all his friends!") and teaching him how to shoot a gun, leads his son into battle against officials ready to foreclose a neighbor's farm. Once Kyle realizes that bloodshed and destruction are in store, it is too late for him to back out. This action-packed drama challenges readers to examine conventional notions of freedom, loyalty and manhood. Kyle's emotional turmoil is genuine, even if events (e.g., the bombing of a government building) appear extreme and characterizations (e.g. "If he was going to have friends... he better go along with the flow, bite his tongue and not judge," are Kyle's thoughts when he meets a teen leader), occasionally superficial. Hearts will be racing as Kyle desperately seeks escape from external and internal warfare. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 8-10?Fourteen-year-old Kyle's summer visit to his father in northern Michigan takes a surprising turn when the teen becomes enmeshed in a right-wing militia's plot to wage war on the federal government. Within the first hour of reconnecting with Dad, Kyle is thrilled to be offered the truck to drive, a cigarette, gun lessons, and maybe even a motorcycle. His father gives him a camouflage suit and the teen gets a buzz cut to fit in with the young people he meets. At a party, he encounters an older girl who comes to his house the next day and makes sexual advances toward him. His anticipation for a great summer wanes and his confusion and fear build as he learns more about his father, the "General," and Operation Desperate, a plan to fight perceived government control by blowing up a federal building. Although the ending is a bit melodramatic, it is not pat. After some hesitation, Kyle turns his father in; this intervention saves some lives, but not all. The novel, reading as it does like today's headlines, is a thought-provoking discussion-starter.?Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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