Junk Boy by Tony Abbott - OPTIONAL

Junk Boy by Tony Abbott, 368 pages. Katherine Tegen (Harper), 2020. $18 

Language:PG (19 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (child neglect)

BUYING ADVISORY: MS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

9th grader Bobby knows that he is hard to look at – in fact his mother took off when he was a baby because she found him so ugly. He and his surly father exist in a cabin surrounded by junk. It isn’t until he runs into Rachel, who has an extremely difficult with her own mother about Rachel’s girlfriend, that Bobby realizes that he does have something to offer the world, as he sees himself through Rachel’s drawing of him. Rachel, however, is a leap first kind of person, bulldozing her way through the world – when she needs saving, Bobby isn’t sure that he can save her.

I will always feel cheated reading a free verse novel. While the page count seems high, the poems are fairly short. Bobby is so unused to having anyone care about him, that his interactions are confusing and confused. While I am glad for the direction Bobby’s life is heading by the end, I am not sure students will persevere to that point.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS