Sylvia Sherry

Rocky lives on the edge of poverty with his borderline-abusive mother, his nonverbal little sister, and a mostly-absent stepfather. His older brother, whom he worships, has been in prison long enough that their sister has never met him, and Rocky seems to be headed in the same direction as a member of a gang of kids looking to break into more serious "jobs."

The book strikes a good balance between the bitterness of Rocky's world and the glimmer of hope in his character's development from blind acceptance of his lot as a Bad Kid to an awareness that there's more out there that he could accomplish. Rocky is a nicely drawn character (rough but also malleable and fundamentally a kind soul), as is the Liverpool neighborhood in which he lives. As it turns out, I enjoyed this one more that I suspected I would.… (mehr)