Sitting over a tub of dirty water, the Bozo taunts the crowd until some poor fool forks over enough money to finally dunk him. The Bozo is amazing and powerful--and Chad wants to be that Bozo. Full of anger at a father who left him, a mother who works too much, adults who think he is a loser, and the autoimmune disease that is killing his best friend, Chad is sure he could be the perfect Bozo. And master the craft he does, only to find it more useful in real life than in the tank. Chad is the prototype of the hard-luck teen whom police mistake for a petty criminal, teachers think is lazy, and who never gets the girl. The Bozo, too, is classic: the bitter loner who is slowly turning his life around. With painful truth, Lubar has created complex, difficult to understand characters that seem straight from real life. Only the happy ending concedes to formula.

Mesmerized by the new Bozo working at a boardwalk dunk tank, Chad decides he too wants to "scream at the world from the safety of a cage." Malcolm, the troubled carnival clown, trains Chad to work the tank and encourages the teenager to handle some difficult personal relationships. Both are well-realized characters in a solid novel about the anger that often fuels humor--and the compassion that enhances it.

Lubar's ( Hidden Talents , 1999, etc.) latest is somewhat weaker than the sum of its parts. The characters are strong, the setting is interesting enough, but somehow the plot just does not ring true. Chad lives on the Jersey shore, an odd place to live, especially in the off season. Chad and his single mother try to scrape together enough money to pay the mortgage, she by working and renting their second floor to boarders, Chad by scamming side jobs on the boardwalk. When Malcolm, a college professor with a unique summer job, becomes their new tenant, Chad's summer is irrevocably changed. Malcolm works as a "Bozo" at the dunk tank, the smart-mouthed jokester who jeers passers-by into spending their money to dunk him. Chad is so taken by Malcolm's ability to come up with the perfect wisecrack every time that he vows to study him and become a Bozo himself. Added to this unlikely career choice is Chad's struggle to work up the courage to talk to his dream girl, the collapse of his best friend due to a rare autoimmune disease, and Malcolm's slow revelations about his past that led him to this vocation. Chad is an appealing enough teen, nice to his mother, hangs out with his friends, worries about his social life, yet somehow is just not likable enough. Lubar seems to throw in a lot of filler—Chad's friend's disease, his struggles to talk to a girl he likes—which doesn't necessarily add to the story. One substantial plot device involves Malcolm introducing Chad to classics in humor (the Marx brothers, Charlie Chaplin) and discussing how laughter and humor can be healing. Chad uses this idea to help his friend feel better as they await news of his disease, but these parts are few and far between. Not a bad effort, just not quite there. Will appeal to junior-high boys who aren't looking for a challenging read. (Fiction. 12-14)

From the moment that soon-to-be-11th-grader Chad hears the boardwalk clown hurling insults, the teen adds the job to his list of goals. In what <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW called "an engrossing novel, Lubar ably charts a watershed summer between boyhood and manhood." Ages 13-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(June)

Gr 7-10-Dunk grips readers from the very first sentence and doesn't let go until the last. The summer crowd hasn't quite arrived on the boardwalk in a Jersey shore town when Chad becomes entranced by the Bozo-the clown in the dunk tank-whose voice and comments are as irritating as nails on a chalkboard. It occurs to him that if he can become a Bozo, then he can take out his anger on people who have made him miserable, such as his deadbeat dad and his teachers. As he learns the craft, he gains new respect for clever Bozos who quickly choose a "mark" from people passing on the boardwalk, hook them with a wisecrack that's prickly enough to make them want to dunk him, and then keep the sarcasm going. Although Chad thinks he'll instantly ace the technique, he grudgingly realizes that it is an art. When his best friend becomes seriously ill, he learns that the softer side of humor is as vitally important as the more vengeful barbs. Plot clearly delineates not only self-understanding, but also peer pressure, family conflict, and first romance through the mechanism of Chad's summer adventures. The story line shows the teen's quandary, but does not become stereotypical; few kids want a summer job as a boardwalk Bozo to resolve their conflicts. The author creates immediacy through the protagonist's very typical problems; he wants to find romance, to thwart a troublemaker, and to help his friend. Similar to heroes in stories by Chris Crutcher, Chad learns valuable life lessons in a thoroughly enjoyable and convincing way.-Susan Cooley, Tower Hill School, Wilmington, DE Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.