An award-winning writer and playwright ("33 Snowfish") hits the open road for a searing novel-in-letters about a street kid on a high-stakes trek across America.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
An award-winning writer and playwright ("33 Snowfish") hits the open road for a searing novel-in-letters about a street kid on a high-stakes trek across America.
Description
An award-winning writer and playwright hits the open road for a searing novel-in-letters about a street kid on a highstakes trek across America.
For a runaway boy who goes by the name "Punkzilla," kicking a meth habit and a life of petty crime in Portland, Oregon, is a prelude to a mission: reconnecting with his older brother, a gay man dying of cancer in Memphis. Against a backdrop of seedy motels, dicey bus stations, and hitched rides, the desperate fourteen-year-old meets a colorful, sometimes dangerous cast of characters. And in letters to his sibling, he catalogs them all — from an abusive stranger and a ghostly girl to a kind transsexual and an old woman with an oozing eye. The language is raw and revealing, crackling with visceral details and dark humor, yet with each interstate exit Punkzilla’s journey grows more urgent: will he make it to Tennessee in time? This daring novel offers a narrative worthy of Kerouac and a keen insight into the power of chance encounters.
Awards
Commended for Michael L. Printz Award (Young Adult) 2010
Critic Reviews
“Beneath a surface of disease, despair, and disfigurements, Rapp's road trip is populated with good souls who, despite their circumstances, make significant sacrifices to help PunkzillaiThis is devastating stuff, but breathtaking, too. Booklist (starred review)”
Beneath a surface of disease, despair, and disfigurements, Rapp’s road trip is populated with good souls who, despite their circumstances, make significant sacrifices to help Punkzilla…This is devastating stuff, but breathtaking, too.
—Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
Adam Rapp is the acclaimed author of several novels for young adults, including Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and winner of the American Library Association’s Schneider Family Book Award, and 33 Snowfish, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (Top Ten Pick). He is also an accomplished playwright and screenwriter. He lives in New York City.
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