Norton, Preston Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe,
400 pages. Disney, MAY 2018. $18.
Content: NC-17
Neanderthal (formerly known as Cliff) is a hulking, outsider
presence in his high school. And since
his older brother Shane committed suicide he feels left out in his own
life. Then school golden child Aaron
Zimmerman gets a concussion (not Cliff’s fault) and the first day he is back at
school, he tells Cliff that he had a vision from God and the two of them have a
list of five tasks in order to improve life for everyone at Happy Valley High
School. WHAT?! The odds seem stacked against the pair - and everything they do
seems to have the opposite effect. But
in little ways things are looking up (Neanderthal has a girlfriend?! Cool!), so
the pair persist. But each success leads
to another roadblock. It really will
take divine intervention to save any of them from themselves.
As I told my husband, I hated this book so much that I can’t
wait to read it again. It terms of
swearing, mature content, and violence, it earns that NC-17 rating over and
over again. I mean. It uses the ‘f’ word 76 times! But I also spent every page laughing out
loud, reading passages to my husband, and wanting to cover the pages with
highlighter because I was so impressed by the author’s craft. it is so full of heart and raw emotion and I
can think of hundreds of students, by name, who would immediately benefit from
reading this. What do I do? I do think
that Norton could have written the same big without the major content issues -
I think that is why I am so mad at it.
You (school librarians) are going to have to decide for yourselves whether
to add it to your shelves.
HS - OPTIONAL. Cindy,
Library Teacher
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