Assignment: #1 of ten narratives
Author: Nancy Garden
Publisher: Orlando:Harcourt, Inc., 2006. 287p.
Date: 02/14/07
Format/Genre: Narrative Fiction
Recommended Grade Level: 9-12
Awards: Best Books of the Year, 2006
Summary- Gray Wilton is a fourteen year old boy who loves to do archery, play with his dog and play the drums. His family moves to Massachusetts because of his fathers job transfer. Gray swears that he is going to start fresh at a new school. He quickly becomes the unlucky recipient of ridicule from the school jocks. Gray's life is tormented (made to eat paint, called a fag, dog ran over and drums destroyed). It soon becomes to much for Gray to handle. One morning he takes a gun into school to kill the jocks who have been bullying him. He quickly finds out that innocent people have been killed in the cross-fire. Gray then finds his fate...Life without parole at the age of fifteen.
Comments: This book caught my eye due to the cover illustrations. It shows a school locker with bullet holes in various patterns. Garden wastes no time in setting the stage up for what is to come in the book. It begins in the juvenile detention center where Gray is awaiting arraignment. Gray tells his side of the story weaved through dialogue between him and his lawyer Mr. Falco. The author gives very vivid details of things that are surrounding Gray. When reading the book it was as if you could feel how Gray was actually feeling. The book contains vulgar language which I could see to be offensive to some readers. The ending was disappointing because it left you in suspense with the last words being..Life, without parole. I believe that Garden could definitely right a sequel furthering the story of Gray.
VOYA: 4Q 4P
