Starred Review Ever since he turned 12-and-a-half, Wyatt has been on the road with his cool uncle Spade, who lives by his wits and has a different "ladyfriend" in every new town they visit. For six years his uncle's Chevy "was my house," Wyatt tells the reader, and "all his ladyfriends was my mom." It's Spade's idea that Wyatt, who is unusually tall and strong, should start bare-knuckle fighting for money, and the boy, heartbreakingly eager to please, complies, winning fight after fight . . . until the last one. Oaks' first novel is a breathtaking debut with an unforgettable protagonist, a boy who may claim he hates the word love but is nonetheless desperately in search of it and of himself. The voice Oaks has created for Wyatt to tell his painful and poignant story is a wonderful combination of the unlettered and the eloquent. One example, his description of Spade: "I looked at him real good: his skin like a greasy diner, his black eyes like spiders in holes, his body like a starved bird." Will Wyatt ever find himself? Readers who meet him will care desperately about the answer.

The daughter of the American ambassador to Ethiopia, Lucy longs to explore the country. After she is kidnapped, Lucy turns to her knowledge of the Ethiopian landscape and wildlife to make her way home. The book is dramatic and informative, but the facts often weigh on the narrative and Lucy's survival in the wilderness (though based on a true story) strains credibility.

Wyatt Reaves, 12 years old at the beginning of this troubling story, relates his teen years, spent manipulated by an adult who lacks a moral compass. From the novel's beginning and for the next six years, he is the unlikely companion of his Uncle Spade, a grifter, womanizer and salesman with an eye for a quick buck. Wyatt, slow on the uptake, has trouble remembering what day it is but always knows the month and year. He grows into a huge physical presence, but is emotionally just a kid. What he can do is fight ferociously if insulted, comparing himself to the Incredible Hulk. Spade and Wyatt hit the road, collecting cash bets while promoting Wyatt as a bare-knuckle boxer. Wyatt tells readers he's "only killed 3 times in my life." Dialogue without quotation marks gives this story a movie-script feel and pulls readers into Wyatt's confusion. Disturbing scenes of cleaning fish, killing tadpoles and violent brawls pitted against adults mark this work suitable for male reluctant readers who lean toward bloody violence . (Fiction. YA)

Gr 9 Up-Wyatt Reaves opens his soul to an unnamed stranger on a bus taking him away from his bleak past and negligent parents, Fever and Ma. When he was 12, he burned down his family home. For the next five years, he is taken on a circuitous road trip by Uncle Spade, Fevers brother, an unscrupulous, hard-drinking traveling salesman with girlfriends in several locales. Stopping in Arkansas, Wyatt makes friends with Clark, a small, bespectacled boy. Together they invent a game of cruelty to polliwogs, but soon the beat-up Chevy is back on the road heading wherever Spades shady deals take them. Wyatts height and developing musculature belie the fearful, lost child inside, who is unable to cry. His thwarted emotions coalesce into an intense rage that is often violent and out of control. Spade eagerly becomes Wyatts manager, coaching him, sending him on long beer runs, and collecting the cold cash flowing from Wyatts dominance as a fist-fighter. They stop to visit one of Spades girlfriends, whose kindness touches Wyatt, but things go badly when Spade batters her on her front lawn, and Wyatt begins to question his own sanity when he feels a compulsion to go and kill his one friend, Clark. He demands to return to Fever and Ma, a move that only confirms the harm and hurt of a family culture laced with vulgarity, mockery, and insults. Characterizations are strong in this searing, yet affirming first novel of a young man determined to define himself and make a new life. Susan W. Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT

On his half birthday, twelve-year-old Wyatt finds himself homeless and in a shelter, no shoes on his feet, and his parents screaming threats at him through the door of a social workerÆs office. His Uncle Spade shows up like some cool guardian angel with a muscle car and whisks him off to a life of adventure on the road. Spade is a traveling salesman of dubious moral character, selling merchandise of questionable provenance. He is woefully unprepared to meet the developmental needs of a child, yet he is a considerable step up from WyattÆs birth parents. Spade is a hustler and soon learns how to exploit Wyatt, turning him into a successful bare-knuckle fighter. Together they crisscross the country like characters in a violent, dysfunctional-family/buddy film. Wyatt keeps fighting and winning, and he tries to raise himself, with occasional input from one of his uncleÆs ôgirlfriends.ö Using first-person narrative and the fractured grammar of an undereducated teen, Oaks puts readers inside WyattÆs head. He is a troubled youth being raised by little better than wolves. The fighting is a fairly obvious metaphor for WyattÆs hardscrabble journey from victim to victor but will engage male readers. The story succeeds because of WyattÆs voice, capturing all his vulnerable, messy humanity. This novel is a tough-guyÆs coming-of-age story, and its brief length will likely appeal to reluctant readers. Librarians should be aware that the book references violence, drugs, and alcohol and includes a scene in a GentlemanÆs Club.ùAmy Fiske.