Give a Boy a Gun

by Todd Strasser Narrated by Full Cast

Overview

A heartbreaking novel that offers no easy answers, Give a Boy a Gun addresses the growing problem of school violence. Although it is a work of fiction, it could tragically be the leading nightly news story in any community. After a high school shooting at her alma mater, a college journalism student returns home to interview students, teachers, parents, and friends of the suspects. Intermingled with her interviews are journal entries written by the two troubled boys responsible for the shooting. Their journals chronicle years of systematic abuse at the hands of their classmates and follow the boys' frustration and pain as they turn to rage. Give a Boy a Gun explores every angle and raises tough questions about peer bullying, gun control and accountability. A full cast of narrators' voices add a dramatic reality to this provocative work.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Like Virginia Walter in Making Up Megaboy, Strasser (How I Changed My Life) explores the psyche of adolescents who use handguns to violent ends. Unfortunately, the format used here detracts from the central drama--10th-graders Gary Searle and Brendan Lawlor holding their classmates hostage with firearms and bombs. A portentous author's note ("One of the things I dislike most about guns in our society is that... they rob children of what we used to think of as a childhood") prefaces an excerpt from Gary's suicide note, which is followed by comments from one Denise Shipley, who is studying journalism at the state university and returns to Middletown High "determined not to leave again until I understood what had happened there." The bulk of the novel is comprised of quotes Denise has collected from, among others, the two 10th-graders' parents, teachers and classmates, including nemesis Sam Flach, a football player whose knees they shatter with bullets. These quotes, however, seem arbitrarily arranged into sections; scattered and disconnected, the quotes build little momentum and the overall effect is numbing. Running along the foot of many of the pages are distracting excerpts from the media, Internet postings and statistics from unattributed sources (e.g., "The number of kids killed by firearms has quadrupled in the past ten years"). The revelation in Denise's closing note (that she is Gary's stepsister) and the author's "Final Thoughts" ("It will be your job to keep these ideas alive") provide a heavy-handed ending that may be more off-putting than eye-opening. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Publishers Weekly

The author explores the psyche of adolescents who use handguns to violent ends, as two 10th-graders hold their classmates hostage. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Two boys go on a shooting rampage at Middletown High School; one commits suicide, the other is beaten unconscious before he gets the chance. It happens in the gymnasium, not the library, but the scenario will sound familiar. The story unfolds in a series of interviews, after the fact, conducted by a college student who reveals her relationship to the case at the end of the book. She tries to piece together the puzzle of the tragedy by gathering various individuals' recollections about the boys beginning in grade school. Gary was very bright, quiet, and had a weight problem. Brendan was thin, defensive, and quick to anger. As the chapters move from middle school up, readers hear from classmates and teachers that these boys were outcasts-ostracized and bullied by their peers-and potential trouble. They remain flat, two-dimensional characters, and what their suicide notes say and how the events play out come as no surprise. Statistics, quotes, and facts related to actual incidents of school violence appear in dark print at the bottom of the pages. An appendix includes a chronology of school shootings in the United States, the author's own treatise on gun control, and places to get more information. While this book lacks the literary merit of Avi's Nothing But the Truth (Orchard, 1991) or Rob Thomas's Slave Day (S & S, 1997), it will satisfy empathetic teenage readers and might succeed as a springboard for a class discussion.-Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Kirkus Reviews

Vivid, distressing, and all too real, Strasser's (Close Call, 1999, etc.) latest work of fiction explores the minds and hearts of a group of students, parents, teachers, and community members whose lives are forever altered by a tragic school shooting. After years of harassment and casual cruelty from the football heroes at Middletown High that is tacitly endorsed by adults in the school, two disturbed, volatile boys arm themselves to the teeth and storm their school dance looking for payback. Although the book's main message—if these kids couldn't easily procure weapons, this tragedy could have been averted—comes through loud and clear it is also a denunciation of the value system of an entire community, a community that allowed—even encouraged—a select few to rule by bullying. As the stepsister of one of the gunmen said, "Violence comes in many forms—guns, fists, and words of hate and contempt. Unless we change the way we treat others in school and out, there will only be more, and more horrible tragedies." The book is not written like a traditional novel; it's a pastiche of various voices, and the reader pieces the story together through interviews, diary entries, online conversations, and even suicide notes. Despite the fact that the cast is large and it may be difficult for young readers to keep track of who's who, the multiple points of view create empathy for a wide range of characters and enhance the book's in-your-face reality. Important, insightful, and chilling. (Fiction. 12-14)

From the Publisher

* "Both haunting and harrowing, the book deserves a wide readership, discussion and debate."—Booklist, starred review

“A disturbing and provocative novel.”—KLIATT

"Vivid, distressing, and all too real…The multiple points of view create empathy for a wide range of characters and enhance the book's in-your-face reality. Important, insightful, and chilling."—Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169447217
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	05/22/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Introduction Around 10 P.M. on Friday, February 27, Gary Searle died in the gymnasium at Middletown High School. After the bullet smashed through the left side of his skull and tore into his brain, he probably lived for ten to fifteen seconds.

The brain is a fragile organ suspended in a liquid environment. Not only does a bullet destroy whatever brain tissue is in its path, but the shock waves from the impact severely jar the entire organ, ripping apart millions of delicate structures and connections. In the seconds that follow, the brain swells with blood and other fluids. The parts of the brain that control breathing and heartbeat stop. One doctor described it to me as "an earthquake in the head."

At the moment of Gary's death I was in the library at the state university, where I was a sophomore studying journalism. As soon as I heard the news, I went home to Middletown, determined not to leave until I understood what had happened there.

Returning to Middletown was like stepping into a thick fog of bewilderment, fury, agony, and despair. For weeks I staggered through it, searching out other lost, wandering souls. Some were willing to talk to me. Others spoke because they felt a need to defend themselves even though no one had pointed an accusing finger at them. Some even sought me out because they wanted to talk. As if speaking about it was a way of trying to figure it out, of beginning the long, painful process of grieving and moving ahead.

Some refused to speak because it must have been too painful. For others, I suspect it was because they had learned something about themselves that they were still struggling to accept --or to conceal.

I spoke to everyone who would speak to me. In addition I studied everything I could find on the many similar incidents that have occurred in other schools around our country in the past thirty years.

The story you are about to read is really two stories. One is about what happened here in Middletown. The other is the broader tale of what is happening all around our country -- in a world of schools and guns and violence that has forever changed the place I once called home. The quotes and facts from other incidents are in a different-style print. What happened in Middletown is in plain print.

This, then, is the story of what I learned. It is told in many voices, in words far more eloquent and raw than any I could have thought of on my own. It is a story of heartbreak and fear and regret. But mostly it is a warning. Violence comes in many forms -- guns, fists, and words of hate and contempt. Unless we change the way we treat others in school and out, there will only be more -- and more horrible -- tragedies.

-- Denise Shipley

Copyright © 2000 by Todd Strasser

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