Adam Rapp
ISBN: 978-0-76363031-7
Candlewick Press 2009
Plot Summary: Jaimie is a fourteen year old boy with ADD. He just went AWOL from military school and took Crystal Meth. He then decides he must board a greyhound bus and travel to see his dying brother Peter. Peter we learn has cancer and Jaimie hopes to get to Peter in Memphis Tennessee before he dies. Jaimie boards the bus in Portland, Oregon.
The book is a series of letters from Jamie to Peter, or "P"as he addresses his brother in he letters, and the letters document Jamie's experiences on the way to Memphis. Jamie explains how he did meth to his brother candidly and tells his brother he realizes its wrong but that he know Jamie wanted the truth. He also talks about how he met a transgender man that used to be a woman. He talks about gender performity with the young man, and asks how his parents felt about his conversion from physically female to male.
He also explains how he used to beat up runners and steal their ipods, and gives his brother an in depth explanation of his experiences in military school and his decision to go AWOL.
Jaimie also gets beat up at the train station and the muggers steal everything but his notebook. He is relieved to have the notebook as it is his only comfort as he writes to his brother. The letters continue and most are addressed to Jaimie while the rest are to friends. His family also writes to him encouraging him to turn his life around while in military school. Jaimie refers to his father as "The General" in his letters to show how strict he is.
Jaimie's arrival in Memphis is bittersweet and Rapp shows Jaimie find hope that he might stay with Jorge, Peter's lover, to start over.
Critical Analysis: Adam Rapp writes a gritty and urgent story through Jaimie's letters where readers are both sympathetic with Jaimie and repulsed by him as well. His parents seem to be too stringent to understand that Jaimie has different needs as a child with ADD, and they favor his brother Edward conveying a lack of tolerance for Peter as a homosexual, and Jaimie as a defiant child. While Jaimie's opening letters are supposed to be him writing on meth, the urgency continues conveying Jamie's desire to get to Peter as well as showing his internal thought process as rushed and anxious as a boy with ADD. The story is relevant and raw putting forth topics which evoke discomfort but need a voice. Rapp's style is unique and the book reads as fast as Jaimie thinks.
Annotation: Jamie sets out to visit his dying brother. Peter or "P" has cancer, and lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Jamie hopes to get to Peter before he dies via a Greyhound bus. Along the way he catalogs drug use, feelings, people he meets, his past transgressions, and his feelings of alienation with a Military father and submissive mother.
About the Author: Adam Rapp is a playwright and writer. He is an acclaimed writer of Young Adult Novels. He was raised in Joliet, IL, with his brother, actor Anthony Rapp, and sister, Anne. His parents divorced when Rapp was five, and he and his siblings were raised by their mother, who died in 1997. He graduated from Clarke College, where he played varsity basketball. He also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at The Juilliard School.
Rapp is the author of numerous young adult novels, including Missing the Piano, The Buffalo Tree, The Copper Elephant, Little Chicago, 33 Snowfish, Under the Wolf, and Under the Dog.
Genre: YA novel, fiction
Curriculum Ties: English: This book is useful even in spite of the material as the "stream of conscious" writing style employed by Adam Rapp is useful element to explore for high school Creative Writing courses or English classes.
Challenge Issues: Drugs, Transgender, Sex
Book Talking:
1.) What does the last letter mean for the whole book? Did any of this happen? Or was the letter simply written before Jamie went AWOL?
2.) What do you think it was like for Jaimie growing up with "The General?"
3.) When Jamie starts to take meth, do you believe it is a way of self medication since he stopped taking his ADD medication?
Age/ Reading Level/ Interest: 9th grade and up 14 and up
Defense: I would explain that while this book is gritty and provocative, it deals with many issues teens face; identity, sexual feelings, and grief. It is also noteworthy that Jaimie has ADD and his drug use may be a way of self medicating. I would invite adults challenging this book to read it, to discuss it with parents which find it a useful tool for discussion, and direct them to the YALSA site where it is on there list for 2009 Best Young Adult Books.
http://www.examiner.com/x-11029-Young-Adult-Literature-Examiner~y2009m6d7-YALSA-best-book-nominations-released-2009
In addition, I would explain policies for selection for San Diego County Libraries:
If after my working to convince the patron, they still were not satisfied and wanted to file a grievance, I would provide the needed paper work and then it would go to the “Challenged Materials” team for San Diego County and then onward until there is resolution: http://dbpcosdcsgt.co.san-diego.ca.us/screens/Intranet/policy/sdcl-policy_O.34_intellectual_freedom.pdf
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