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Summary
Summary
It is 1969, and Bowser has arrived at The Hill, an institution for delinquent teenage boys. No one is doing much to protect the boys who find themselves there, but Bowser doesn't expect to stay long. He thinks he might be crazy (and others agree), so he'll probably be off to the nuthouse soon.
When one of the boys is killed in an accident and it looks like Bowser's friend Nose is going to be made a scapegoat for the death, it's up to Bowser, crazy or not, to stand up for the truth.
With language that combines the gritty and the truly graceful, Chris Carlton Brown's debut novel is heartbreaking and unforgettable.
Author Notes
CHRIS CARLTON BROWN was a reporter at the Richmond News Leader , built a business career in East Asia, and currently teaches reading to children with learning disabilities. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In Virginia in 1969, 15-year-old Bowser gets sent to the Hill, an institution for troubled and delinquent teens. There he meets Evan, Babybird, and Snicklesnort, three other white boys who seem indistinguishable from one another. After Bowser gets into a fight with a black boy, Nose, the two develop a rivalry that becomes a friendship. The action finds a focus about halfway through, when Evan is killed in a tractor accident. Shorty Nub, the sadistic staff member who was in charge of the work crew, pressures the boys into lying about the incident. When the administration seems poised to blame Nose, Bowser investigates, and his discovery that Shorty Nub is running a child prostitution ring makes Bowser's quest to expose the truth more pressing and dangerous. Despite its edgy elements, the novel is off-putting and confusing. Though he narrates the book, Bowser doesn't always make his motivations and thought processes clear, and readers will be unsure how to react to his unsettled mental state and his sometimes-disturbing behaviors. Throughout the novel, various characters tell stories that are presented in a different font. Though these pieces highlight the power of storytelling, the sudden shifts in the narrative perspective rob the novel of its immediacy. Symbols, including the titular "hoppergrass" (a grasshopper in a jar), recur throughout, but are not well integrated into the plot. Readers will be turned off by the slow pacing, shallow characters, and lack of emotional resonance.-Megan Honig, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
Incarcerated at fifteen, Bowser discovers the people running his reform school in 1969 are greater criminals than the inmates. Eventually, grave injustices stir Bowser to match wits with the men who abuse power and those who turn a blind eye. Brown's unstinting exploration of seamy issues raises essential questions about violence, racism, and the power of stories. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Awaiting a psychiatric evaluation at a rural juvenile detention site for his part in a botched robbery, Bowser forms tentative friendships with several of his fellow inmates, including an African-American teen nicknamed Nose. When another friend dies while at the facility, Bowser defends Nose's innocence, while alienating his companions and clashing with the authorities. With a drawling voice that discourages all but the most determined readers, Brown spins a literary mess, with a directionless narrative, needless conceits and an unsatisfactory conclusion. A typeface switch between the ongoing narrative and characters' reminiscences is more affectation than compelling device, and the folksy tone of the interruptions (often and troublingly in dialect) conflicts with the grittiness of the tale. Racial tension crops up occasionallythe year is 1969but even during those moments, the tension remains slack. The resolution is halfhearted, as the questions of abuse, neglect and sanity are unresolved, and readers are left to extrapolate meaning from facet-less characters and murky writing. There is undeniable literary promise here, but it would have done better to bake through a couple more drafts. (Historical fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Fifteen-year-old Bowser is in trouble again. First it was the county jail, then the Diagnostic Center, and now it's the Hill an institution for juvenile delinquents. As tends to happen in barracks, despite the deadening routines, mighty bonds are formed, in this case between characters adorned with colorful nicknames like Babybird and Snicklesnort. But most surprising is Bowser's friendship with Nose, a scrappy black kid who outwardly pretends to be Bowser's archrival. The crossing of racial lines is one of Brown's recurrent themes, and though his light touch is appreciated, it often feels as if the plot would unfurl the same way in 2009 as it does in 1969. Still, the book is quite readable; especially well handled is Bowser's maybe/maybe-not schizophrenia. The story really takes off in the second half, following the suspicious death of one of Bowser's buddies, when the plot makes a surprisingly dark turn pornography and prostitution are involved. Though many of the adult characters are unrealistic, they are deliciously evil and readers will find them deserving of the revenge heading their way.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2009 Booklist
