THE REAL QUESTION

Daily confrontations with a humorless, detail-oriented father (who is also his school guidance counselor) and sarcastic “friends,” who ruthlessly mock exam scores that are anything less than perfect, have Fisher Brown feeling pressure. The young man is frazzled. His brain locks up during a chemistry test and a beloved pet dog is dying. The 16-year-old laments his purpose with the question, “What’s the point?” Seizing the day, he recklessly agrees to tag along with bad boy Lonny and rides the Greyhound from his home in Tallahassee to small town Chiefland. Fisher rationalizes his journey: “All I did was steal a couple of days from my own life. Nobody should care.” Chiefland’s working poor exist in a different universe, presenting Fish with a quandary. Should he return home and buckle down for the SATs or lend a hand to Lonny’s extended family? This coming-of-age story is marked by Fisher’s first-person narrative that mixes wry humor and bittersweet thoughts. Readers will empathize with the engaging young man who, without a guidebook, sorts through life’s real questions. (Fiction. YA)