From School Library Journal
Grade 8-12 Although this novel is very British, it has many elements which could make it popular with teens. Life is difficult for the blue-collar family of 15-year-old Brian. Their small house must accommodate seven people when Brian's older sister moves back home with her illegitimate baby, and then Mr. Gower loses his job. Brian tries his luck at joining the ``Ointment,'' a gang of rowdy teenage football fans, yet he dis likes himself for throwing a rock at a car to impress them. Teens will under stand most of these problems, and they will empathize with Brian as he tries to cope. To add suspense, there's Roys ton Ambler, a rich boy turned bad, who rapes and murders young girls, and who is reminiscent of a character in Richard Peck's Are You in the House Alone? (Viking, 1976), but Peck explores the problem more fully and with greater suspense. In an exciting but slightly un believable ending, Brian's girlfriend Debbie narrowly escapes rape and mur der when she accepts a ride with Am bler, and Brian nearly dies when he falls off the football stands and cracks his head. If Brian's fall is seen as pun ishment for his selfish devotion to sport, that's a rather trite retribution. There's a lot of plot action here, almost more than this brief book can stand, as Swindells switches point of view from Brian to Debbie to omniscient observer in some very brief chapters. The dia logue does enhance character realism, especially with Brian, but the greatest reading obstacle for American teens will be the British slang and cockney dialect. Phyllis Graves, Creekwood Middle School, Kingwood, Tex.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Brian Gower is fifteen and supports Barfax Town soccer team. He does well in school but, living in a noisy overcrowded home where he can't study, wonders if it's worth the effort. Debbie likes Brian but she can't stand soccer and won't go to games with him. If her parents had their way, their daughter would never go out at all. She would sit in their spotless house watching "educational" TV.
This is a hard-hitting novel about teenagers growing up in a North of England industrial city depressed by unemployment and poverty. Many of their concerns and experiences will be familiar to American readers; some will be quite new. Like the local soccer team, and against the odds, Debbie and Brian are doing the best they can to stay up.
"It is about parental culture and youthful anarchy, school versus sex and soccer, a prissy girl's involvement with a wild boy...splendid." -- The Guardian (London)
