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Four Dog Riot
Four smart kids. One busy town.
Hoot Howard collects waterfalls - until somebody steals them. He's a small boy with a big heart.
Bowie Brown plays guitar - and uses it as an assault weapon. He breaks things - rules, windows, collar bones.
Jaz McGuire is determined to never grow up. She wants to never hear mention of ess ee ex.
Mimi Bucher grew up much too fast. She lives in a secret bedroom in a shopping mall.
A couple of neighbors nicknamed Curly and Moe just might be starting a multi-billion dollar software company in a garage - if only they can cash their first check.
It’s the beginning of another year of school in Menlo Park, California in the year 1998, a time of change, the end of a millennium.
Hoot Howard collects waterfalls - until somebody steals them. He's a small boy with a big heart.
Bowie Brown plays guitar - and uses it as an assault weapon. He breaks things - rules, windows, collar bones.
Jaz McGuire is determined to never grow up. She wants to never hear mention of ess ee ex.
Mimi Bucher grew up much too fast. She lives in a secret bedroom in a shopping mall.
A couple of neighbors nicknamed Curly and Moe just might be starting a multi-billion dollar software company in a garage - if only they can cash their first check.
It’s the beginning of another year of school in Menlo Park, California in the year 1998, a time of change, the end of a millennium.
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First published July 20, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 20, 2012
Joe Cottonwood gets it - that new teens, those who have just turned 13 and 14, can skip a couple of decades at the speed of a Hair Galaxy and pop right into their 40's.
And yet they can be light years apart - like Mimi, who harbors a deep, dark secret inside her but radiates power and manipulative ability, and tiny Jaz, who has yet to find out who she really is. Or little Hoot, who is mostly clueless about life and couldn't harm a fly, and big Bowie, who has known the rough side of humanity nearly all his life and knows how to protect himself and his home, even if it involves using a priceless triple-ought-forty-five C. F. Martin guitar as a weapon.
Cottonwood has captured all the emotions that are possible to run through teens, and his characters are almost larger than life in this novel, which is as masterful as those penned by Walter Dean Myers, Gary Soto, Paul Zindel, and S. E. Hinton. It's a powerful piece, and I recommend it without reservation.
And yet they can be light years apart - like Mimi, who harbors a deep, dark secret inside her but radiates power and manipulative ability, and tiny Jaz, who has yet to find out who she really is. Or little Hoot, who is mostly clueless about life and couldn't harm a fly, and big Bowie, who has known the rough side of humanity nearly all his life and knows how to protect himself and his home, even if it involves using a priceless triple-ought-forty-five C. F. Martin guitar as a weapon.
Cottonwood has captured all the emotions that are possible to run through teens, and his characters are almost larger than life in this novel, which is as masterful as those penned by Walter Dean Myers, Gary Soto, Paul Zindel, and S. E. Hinton. It's a powerful piece, and I recommend it without reservation.
September 30, 2016
Joe Cottonwood has done something very interesting with this book. He takes us inside a wealthy suburban middle school (Menlo Park is a rather well-to-do part of the San Francisco Bay Area) and shows us the kids who don't fit in. Bowie's the troubled African-American kid, Jaz is the Asian girl who is sick of the stereotypes to which she's subjected, Hoot is the kid with the hippie mom, and Mimi is the popular girl with more secrets than she knows what to do with.
Each kid has his or her own sub-plot to deal with, and resolving each story arc took a lot of finesse. Cottonwood shows us the underbelly of what some youth experience: bullying, exploitation, violence, and more. While the ending is ultimately satisfying, the journey is not an easy one. I found myself remembering incidents from my own junior high days and sympathizing with the various characters as they try to deal with changing bodies and attitudes.
Well done.
Each kid has his or her own sub-plot to deal with, and resolving each story arc took a lot of finesse. Cottonwood shows us the underbelly of what some youth experience: bullying, exploitation, violence, and more. While the ending is ultimately satisfying, the journey is not an easy one. I found myself remembering incidents from my own junior high days and sympathizing with the various characters as they try to deal with changing bodies and attitudes.
Well done.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews