Jim Carrington

Loved this and couldn't put down. Basically Boy 2 has lived his entire life in one room listening to a voice and watching screen that have educated him. One night he is blindfolded and bundled into a car and left in the woods. Boy 23 must firstly process the world around him that he has never seen before. Then he must follow the Voice's instructions.
All the while we, the readers are wondering like Boy 23 what on earth is going on? As he meets people he discovers he speaks a different language and he learns that the outside world is a harsh place and you can't trust anyone. Dystopian too.… (mehr)

What would you do?
This is a Young Adult novel that deals with issues of bullying and integration into a new school. Whilst I wouldn't exactly call it an adult cross-over novel, it was a good read with a relevant message for today's youngsters.

There are three main characters who all have a voice in the narrative. Zoe is the new girl, she's none too happy about joining a new school, but she's able to view the student interactions with the eyes of an outsider. David is a friend of Paul's, the class bully, and Paul's main target is Gary, who he has given the nick-name of cheese puff for his round head and red hair.
Zoe meets Gary in the local playground before she starts school. It turns out he's in her class, but she doesn't exactly form an instant friendship. It does mean, however, that she has some empathy for him when she sees him being targeted. David is also starting to think that the bullying has gone a bit too far, but are he or Zoe strong enough to stand up against Paul and potentially put themselves in Gary's place?

The book asks some pertinent questions about bullying. What would you do if you were in the same situation? Would you have the strength of character to speak out?
Definitely a good book for sparking important discussion.… (mehr)

This contemporary young adult novel by Jim Carrington is an intriguing read with an unique premise. Johnny and his mates, Jake, Drac and Badger, are teenagers enjoying the freedom of summer holidays in suburban London. When a kicked ball goes astray into an elderly couple’s yard the boys are indignant that they refuse to return it. A few days later the group exacts their revenge on the ‘Poisoned Dwarf’, drenching the woman from water guns shot through her open car window. The boys ride away laughing over the incident until Johnny discovers that the woman had a heart attack as a result of their prank. As strange things begin to happen in the dead of night, Johnny is overwhelmed by his feelings of guilt, and when the old woman dies he is haunted by the consequences of his actions. Even his new girlfriend, Summer, isn’t enough to distract Johnny from his tortured thoughts, is he responsible for the murder of an old woman?

In modern society, where careless actions are too easily mitigated by pleas of “I didn’t mean to do it”, Drive By explores the theme of personal responsibility, asking where fault lies when a seemingly harmless prank goes wrong. When Johnny and his mates take their revenge on an elderly woman for puncturing their soccer ball, and she dies, are the boys murderers? His mates seem largely unconcerned upon hearing the old woman they nicknamed the ‘Poisoned Dwarf’ had a heart attack but Johnny’s twinge of guilt grows exponentially when she dies shortly afterwards. It’s interesting to witness Johnny wrestle with his emotions, he is haunted by the consequences of the incident and his guilty conscience is reinforced by seemingly ghostly occurrences. You never quite know if the night time incidents are simply manifestations of his guilt or if he is being haunted by the old woman or taunted by some unknown person that knows about his role in the death. It’s difficult not to feel some pity for Johnny as he considers what may happen to him and how his family, mates and new girlfriend would feel if he confesses.
It is Johnny’s relationship with Summer that pushes him to make a decision, their fledgling relationship comes under threat when he becomes aware that by horrible coincidence, Summer’s grandmother was the ‘Poisoned Dwarf’. Summer brings her own issues to the story, her father died in a car accident before she was born and while she has been led to believe it was simply a tragic accident, her grandmothers death throws the story into doubt and Summer is determined to discover who was responsible for his death.

I enjoyed Carrington’s honest insight into such a complex question in Drive By and was satisfied with the conclusion. With a lesson to deliver in way that youth can relate to Drive By should probably be on every teenage boy’s (and girl’s) reading list, it might just be enough to make them think twice.… (mehr)