![]() ![]() The engine for the novel: Tod is in detention, having been caught doing something we don’t learn about until later and sentenced to a month with Mrs. Just about everybody is taken in by Tod’s tough guy persona - even the teachers who can’t reconcile his appearance and manner with his high grades - with the possible exception of Stu, a classmate of Tod’s who is blind. He has two companions - not exactly friends, so he calls them his “droogs” - named Rob and Rex, as well as a younger friend who he looks after on the sly named Bernie. Poor, sleeping in an under-heated room in a rough-Manhattan-neighborhood apartment with paper thin walls and so little food that he eats both breakfast and lunch at the school cafeteria, Tod is a loser and knows it. The longer version: If you’re a Calvin & Hobbes fan like I am, then you might share my mental picture of Tod, which is Moe the elementary school bully.Ī few years older and infinitely smarter than Moe, Tod lives with his mom, a seamstress at a down market dry cleaner, and his stepfather Dick, a gardener, who thinks as little of Tod as he has to say to him, which is mostly “keep it down in there.” Tod’s dad walked out of his life when he was a kid, leaving behind only an apology letter that Tod hides in a suitcase under his bed. You’re only likely to hear about it by word of mouth, and my mouth is telling you to go buy it on Amazon or order it from your local bookstore. This is a terrific read for anybody, particularly if you like Young Adult (YA) fiction, from a small press with a small marketing budget. Shulman writes beautifully and keeps the book from turning into an ABC After School Special (they don’t even make those anymore, do they?) exercise in sentimentality. ![]() We have so many books about the inner lives of girls or super-powered boys or just good-looking, well-intentioned kids who wind up in bad situations that it’s refreshing to read a novel that plumbs the personality of somebody who is trapped and has given up on himself and everyone around him. A Season Most Unfair by J.Here’s the executive summary of this post: “Scrawl” reveals the inner life of a junior high school bully, a huge, violent, lower class, shambling boy named Tod Munn who is secretly brilliant but plays being an oaf to conceal his intelligence and retain his hidden-in-plain-sight status in the complex social economy of his school.My Father, the Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang.This is, however, a minor complaint about an otherwise well-written, interesting, and authentic book. Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creekseries employs this style effectively and it immediately hooked me into thinking that I really was reading the teen’s thoughts. Woodrow’s parenthetical notes could also have been written in another handwriting-like script, rather than just indented italics. ![]() That’s an effective way of reinforcing the realism of the idea – it’s not a printed book but a real journal. I like the conceit behind this book, but I was thinking how much more effective it could have been if it had been printed to look like handwriting on notebook paper. It easily reads like he is in high school which makes the crossover appeal great since there aren’t any drugs, sex, foul language or other objectionable issues that would it from being suitable for middle grade readers. It’s not clear what grade Tod is in some reviews say 8th grade, but I don’t recall having seen that mentioned anywhere. Since Tod obviously has a working moral compass and the will to “pop” his droogs when he thinks they’ve crossed the line, it’s pretty clear Shulman intends Scrawl to be a redemptive story. He could fall easily into the life of juvenile delinquency which would lead to a much harsher, bleaker adult life. It’s really his intelligence and wit that keep him on the good side of the edge. He’s definitely a realist (although surprisingly not as pessimistic and angry as he could be, given his situation)and he’s certainly not overly violent. Through the journal Tod eventually opens up and we can see that he is a smart, thoughtful kid who lives a bad home life, isn’t socially accepted at school, and doesn’t have any qualms about using intimidation to get what he wants out of others. Not really sure why he escaped grounds-keeping duty, Tod only knows he’s supposed to write about himself, his family, friends and school life in a beat-up notebook and turn it in for Mrs. Woodrow, a no-nonsense guidance counselor. After he and his droogs are busted for breaking into the school, he’s sentenced to spend his daily detention in a hot, empty room with Mrs. Mark Shulman’s Scrawl is the detention journal of the school’s bully, Tod. ![]()
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