Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"The links between brain chemistry and behavior reveal problems facing research in social and political science if the life sciences are ignored. An estimated 11 million American children take Ritalin and many others exhibit ADD, ADHD, or other learning disabilities. Over 83 million Americans take Prozac, Zoloft and other medications for depression or other psychological conditions, including seasonal affective disorder and sexual addiction. More directly related to politics, environmental toxins such as lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, or manganese can damage the brain and increase risks of criminal violence and other behavioral problems. These empirical observations are relevant to public policies in education, criminal justice, or health care, and indicate the need to reconsider theories of human and social political behavior. To do so, however, is impossible without a detailed knowledge of human biology."

--BIOLOGY AND POLITICS: Linking Nature and Nurture by R. D. Masters, Department of Government, Dartmouth College.

"My parents went to get Troy in our SUV. It was a Saturday and they left early in the morning. It would take them till about noon to make it to the prison, and I figured they would be home with Troy before nightfall.
"I didn't go. I didn't need to make an excuse or offer an explanation--I just said that I wasn't going, and they didn't press me.
"I figured I would see him soon enough.
From our front porch, I watched my parents walk across our front lawn toward our blue SUV. My mom was all decked out for the reunion in a yellow dress, pumps, and carefully applied makeup. I wondered if while she had been applying her eyeliner and lipstick, she had been conscious of the fact that she was on her way to a state penitentiary.
"My poor mother. When she reached the SUV's door, she turned and waved to me once, and there was such tension in the simple gesture that I wanted to go give her a hug and beg her to stay here with me, and not subject herself to this ordeal. My mom is a tall woman, just an inch or two shorter than my dad. She's had a problem with nervous tension over the past few years, and she's on medication to help her stay calm.
"I could tell by looking at her eyes that she hadn't slept a wink the previous night. I wondered how many pills she had taken that morning."

Seventeen year-old Jeff Hastings used to live in Upstate New York with his parents and his big brother Troy. But the family was totally ostracized by their community--and Jeff seriously beaten up--after Troy was arrested, tried as an adult, and convicted of plunging a seven inch knife into a classmate. Troy received a life sentence for the crime.

The family has made a new start in a small town amid the New Jersey pine barrens. Jeff has a beautiful girlfriend Beth, lots of friends on the soccer team where he's a backup wing, and the reputation for being a good guy.

But after five years in prison Troy is being released on a technicality and coming back to live with his family. Jeff is convinced Troy's coming to Pineville will ruin Jeff's life a second time. More importantly, Jeff is sure Troy is evil and dangerous.

"Had Troy really changed? Do bad people become good through penance and reflection? I sat there on the corner of the bed and watched the afternoon give way to evening, as the branches from the crab apple seemed to twist longer and longer in the fading light, and I couldn't help doubting it. I knew Troy. For years he was my big brother, my closest friend, my teacher. I had learned from him, and then, even as a young child, I had sensed that there was something wrong with him, something missing in him, and I had gradually turned against him. By the time he was arrested for murder, I had become very afraid of him.
"Leopards don't change their spots. Crab apple trees don't suddenly grow cherries. Troy would never change."

"Don't you plead me your case, don't bother to explain
Don't even show me your face, 'cause it's a crying shame
Just go back to the rock from under which you came
Take the sorrow you gave and all the stakes you claim
And don't forget the blame."
--Fiona Apple, "Criminal"

Jeff is incredibly bitter before Troy even arrives. When he informs Beth about the impending arrival of the brother he'd never previously told her about, Beth's protective father immediately forbids her to even talk to Jeff.

Jeff doesn't dare tell anyone else about Troy.

In the most suspenseful young adult novel I've read since the Edgar Award-winning ACCELERATION, David Klass probes the biochemical, societal, and religious theories regarding the roots of evil.

Klass' 2001 young adult novel YOU DON'T KNOW ME remains one of my all-time favorite YAs. In DARK ANGEL, as with YOU DON'T KNOW ME, we meet a beautiful girl and her seemingly overprotective father. The significant teacher character this time is a science teacher, Mr. Tsuyki, rather than the music teacher, Mr. Steenwilly. (We do get an extremely brief look at Beth playing her cello that hints of the band practice descriptions in YOU DON'T KNOW ME.) But the darkness in John's story of abuse from YOU DON'T KNOW ME doesn't begin to compare to this disturbing tale of two brothers.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com