Bookverdict.com

Gr 9-Up Kirk Tobak, 16, is a brilliant, undersized underachiever. His uneventful life in small-town New Jersey includes playing parent to his alcoholic mother, blowing off school where he's "chairman of the bored," and shelving books in the library he loves. Life might be a drag, but it's under control, at least until events conspire to take him on a heady roller-coaster ride through the confusion of first love, a rocky taste of independence, and a severe dose of reality. Demoted into bonehead English, Kirk is jolted to find a perceptive teacher trading jibes with the "burnouts," includi...Log In or Sign Up to Read More