McDowell, Beck This is Not a Drill, 216 p. Penguin,
2012. $18. Language: R (85 swears, 2 ‘f’, boys
parts mentioned by name); Violence: PG-13; Mature Content: G.
Emery and Jake are high school volunteers
teaching French to first graders.
Bad enough that they had a really bad break up after Emery caught Jake
two-timing her with another girl.
Then an angry father with a custody battle, a nasty divorce, PTSD, a gun
and an attitude comes to steal away his son and the situation spirals out of
control.
Sure I understand this is
a book for teens and the they usually respond better to books with teens as the
main characters and the heroes, but after the real life school shooting in
Connecticut, I think it is kind of ridiculous that the author would portray the
trained adults as useless and the teens as the only heroes. Ok, ok – I know the shooting hadn’t
happened yet when she wrote this, but I can’t help but compare. It is very well written – sucking you right
in – and it does have very good advice for how to behave should you be caught
in such a situation, but Jake’s prolific swearing just ruins it for me.
HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher
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1 comment:
I read this beforetherecent shooting, so when various groups started saying that armed veterans should be posted at schools, it completely unnerved me! I, too, disliked the swearing. Otherwise, I mighthavebought it.
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