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Bricktown Boys

Pete Fanning (Goodreads Author)

4.67 · Rating details · 3 ratings · 2 reviews

It's 1987 and eleven-year-old Sam Beasley only wants two things: to play football and for his mother to stop dating losers. Only there's no money for a football team in Bricktown, while there's an endless supply of losers for his mother to bring home.

Sam finds a friend in the elderly widow down the street. While he's careful not to let on about his crummy home life, Mrs. C ...more

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Paperback, 164 pages

Published January 12th 2021 by Immortal Works

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Dec 05, 2020 Risa Nyman rated it it was amazing

Bricktown Boys is a story that will grip your heart in a vise and squeeze every emotion out of it. Pete Fanning is an amazing story teller who gives us characters full of natural humanity.

In Bricktown Boys, 12-year-old Sam is forced to navigate a nasty situation at home and finds escape in the kindness and shelter of his neighbor Mrs. Coleman. She is an African American woman who has seen her share of heartache but doesn’t let that diminish her spirit or her beliefs. According to Sam, Mrs. Cole ...more

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Jan 09, 2021 Tower Mutasa rated it really liked it

**I received a free ARC from the author that has no bearing whatsoever on my review.
Overall
This is my second Fanning novel, and boy is there some stuff to unpack.
First thing is first, Brick Town Boys is better than his other novel, Justice in a Bottle which I reviewed here. There was much more story, and there was definitely less meaningless filler content.
What I like about Fanning is how realistic and believable characters are. For instance, it is actually Sam’s friends who tease him for wearin **I received a free ARC from the author that has no bearing whatsoever on my review.
Overall
This is my second Fanning novel, and boy is there some stuff to unpack.
First thing is first, Brick Town Boys is better than his other novel, Justice in a Bottle which I reviewed here. There was much more story, and there was definitely less meaningless filler content.
What I like about Fanning is how realistic and believable characters are. For instance, it is actually Sam’s friends who tease him for wearing bad clothes because he is poor. While we usually think of such people being distant bullies, the truth is our friends can hurt and cut us just as deeply. In school, maybe even more.

He invited me in, set me down on the toilet, and fired up the clippers. I sat back, thinking everything was fine, but Ron kept clicking his teeth and taking sharp breaths. Something bit the side of my head. That’s when he told me he’d never cut a white person’s hair before.
So I had this quarter-sized plug just above my left ear. It wasn’t ideal, but I figured I’d just keep people on my right side for a few days.

Characters
I’m torn about Brenda. On one hand, the stereotype of single mothers being reckless partying women only concerned with bagging another guy is not one I’m fond of. Furthermore, there are parts that insinuate Brenda cares more for her boyfriends than her son. That said, we all know situations described in this book happen. I cannot sit here and virtue signal, when I know there are worse parents than Sam’s mom in the world.
As for Sam himself, he is another child trying to be a kid despite his background. His friends are obviously cool people, although they do engage in cruel humour from time to time. He depends allot on the neighbour. I feel this is important, as it is a reminder it takes a village … Maybe a neighbourhood in this case to raise a child. We need to be reminded more of that.

Resolution
Like Justice in a Bottle, Brick Town Boys has a bittersweet ending. I am a sucker for those. While I’m not sure I agree with how things end, it is obvious the central message here is good will always triumph over evil.
I am certainly open to reading more books from this author.

Favourite Brick Town Boys Quotes

She handed me the keys. “I’m not driving, Sam. You are.”
I looked at the keys, then to Mrs. Coleman. “What? I can’t drive.”
She set her chin the way she did when we were studying together. “Sure you can. We’re not going far.” She rolled her wrists. “My wrists hurt, I’m liable to crash.”
And just what did she think I was “liable” to do?

So we played ball. We played through dark, chasing and tackling and laughing and sweating off the chill and talking trash. We told your momma jokes, made cracks, we laughed like crazy and tried our best to forget what we’d seen—what kept us waking in the night and had forced us to grow up too fast. Because football brought us together, and together we were more than a team. We were family.

Rating: **** ...more

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About Pete Fanning

Pete Fanning

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Pete Fanning is the author of Justice in a Bottle, Runaway Blues, and Bricktown Boys. He lives in Virginia with his wife, son, newborn girl, and two very spoiled dogs. He can be found at www.petefanning.com, where he's posted over 200 flash fiction
stories. ...more