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Give a Boy a Gun

Amazon.com Price:  $3.00 (as of 05/05/2019 06:48 PST- Details)

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Description

Featuring a new trim size and a new line look, Todd Strasser’s acclaimed account of school violence that Kirkus Reviews calls “vivid, distressing, and all too real.”

For so long as they are able to understand that, Brendan and Gary have been mercilessly teased and harassed by the jocks who rule Middletown High. But not anymore. Stealing a small arsenal of guns from a neighbor, they take their classmates hostage at a school dance. In the panic of this desperate situation, it soon becomes clear that only one thing matters to Bendan and Gary: revenge.
High school sophomores Gary Searle and Brendan Lawlor have had enough. Day in and day out, for more than two years, they have got been harassed, beaten up, and cursed out by many of the jocks at Middleton High–especially by football player Sam Flach. Armed with guns they have got stolen from a neighbor’s collection, Gary and Brendan storm a school dance, booby trap all of the doors with homemade bombs, and prepare to turn their high school caste system upside down with a violent show of force. When it’s far and wide, Sam Flach is alive (but without any hope of a future football career), Gary has killed himself, and Brendan is in a coma, after being beaten almost to death by other students who managed to disarm him. Could this tragedy have been prevented? Who, if anyone, is to blame?

Consisting of short, related statements from students, parents, school administrators, and even the troubled shooters themselves, Give a Boy a Gun attempts to give a voice to the countless sides of the school violence issue. Is this novel disturbing and at times difficult to read? Yes, of course it is. But additionally it is an articulate, well-rounded cross section of the many viewpoints on gun keep watch over, peer bullying, and the high school social order since the traumatic events that took place in Littleton, Colorado. At the same time as Strasser readily acknowledges that there are no easy solutions to the problem of school violence, this powerful book will be a useful tool for parents and teachers alike in exploring this issue and finding some ways of resolving the tragic escalation of teen violence. (Ages 12 and older) –Jennifer Hubert

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