JUNK BOY

Two teens struggling with painful home lives forge a complicated friendship in this novel in verse.

Fifteen-year-old Bobby is called Junk by kids at school, a barb directed at him due to the piles of debris that litter the yard of the home where he lives with his neglectful father, who abuses alcohol. Bobby happens to witness the mother of Rachel, an artistically gifted classmate, slapping her daughter after she discovers Rachel kissing another girl. He is drawn to Rachel despite her often mercurial treatment of him. The free-verse form effectively propels this story, which is at once action-oriented and introspective, forward. Bobby’s emotion-filled thoughts make him a narrator it is easy to feel sympathy toward, and readers will likely be relieved by the auspicious events that transpire in his life as he learns more about his family history and is befriended by the town priest. Though the secondary characters are not as well-developed as Bobby is, the idea that people can help others even as they contend with their own demons is clear. This message, and the easily accessible, evocative language of the verse, should hold appeal for a range of realistic fiction fans. The characters all seem to be White.

A poignant, hopeful novel about emerging from the isolation wrought by abuse.