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A Troublesome Boy

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book About the Past, and selected as an Honor Book by the Society of School Librarians International

Teddy can't believe how fast his life has changed in just two years. When he was twelve, his father took off, and then his mother married Henry, a man Teddy despises. But Teddy has no control over his life, and adults make all the decisions, especially in 1959. Henry decides that Teddy should be sent to St. Ignatius Academy for Boys, an isolated boarding school run by the Catholic church.

St. Iggy's, Teddy learns, is a cold, unforgiving place — something between a juvenile detention center and reform school. The other boys are mostly a cast of misfits and eccentrics, but Teddy quickly becomes best friends with Cooper, a wise-cracking, Wordsworth-loving kid with a history of neglect. Despite the priests' ruthless efforts to crack down on the slightest hint of defiance or attitude, the boys get by for a while on their wits, humor and dreams of escape. But the beatings, humiliation and hours spent in the school's infamous "time-out" rooms, and the institutionalized system of power and abuse that protects the priests' authority, eventually take their toll, especially on the increasingly fragile Cooper.

Then one of the new priests, Father Prince, starts to summon Cooper to his room at night, and Teddy watches helplessly as his friend withdraws into his own private nightmare, even as Prince targets Teddy himself as his next victim.

Teddy and Cooper's only reprieve comes on Saturdays, when the school janitor, Rozey, takes the boys to his run-down farmhouse outside of town, the only place where the boys can feel normal — fishing, playing cribbage, watching the bears at the local dump. But even this can't stop Cooper's downward spiral and eventual suicide. And just when Teddy thinks something good might come out of his friend's tragedy, he finds himself dealing with the ultimate betrayal.

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  • Reviews

    • School Library Journal

      August 1, 2012

      Gr 9 Up-It's 1959, and 14-year-old Teddy Clemson has been shipped to St. Ignatius Academy for Boys upon his mother's boyfriend's insistence. His former school has labeled him a "troublesome boy," and he could care less. However, St. Iggy's is not the type of boarding school most parents would select for their sons. The priests lock students in dark, dungeonlike time-out rooms and are physically abusive. While Teddy gets on with most of the other boys, he is closest with Tim Cooper, a smart-mouthed teen who has little regard for the authority of the priests. They bond with Rozey, the school's janitor/maintenance man, with whom they smoke in the basement and go on outings with during the weekend. Teddy is dealing with the apparent abandonment of both of his parents while Tom is dealing with the fact that no one has ever loved him or showed him affection. To complicate matters, Father Prince takes a sexual interest in Tom. As the school year progresses and the priest's nightly visits continue, Tom distances himself from the other boys and eventually commits suicide. Vasey tackles serious subject matter with strong language and concise, intense writing.-Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ

      Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      May 15, 2012
      Grades 9-12 Proclaimed a failure and a troublesome boy by his school, 14-year-old Teddy is unceremoniously shipped off to St. Ignatius Academy, which is essentially a Catholic reform school. There he meets another troublesome boy named Cooper, and the two become friends and companions in adversity. For make no mistake, adversity is a way of life at St. Ignatius, where each day is a nightmare of physical and sexual abuse. And there is seemingly nothing the beleaguered boys can do about it except to find some measure of friendship and warmth in the school's only noncleric, the janitor Rozey. Though set in 1959, the story has a ripped-from-the-headlines atmosphere and may, indeed, have been inspired by the spate of sex scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church of late. In this well-written and compelling bookwhich is reminiscent of Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War (1974)the author offers no easy answers to the problems he poses, leaving ample room for discussion and debate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      July 1, 2012
      After getting shipped to St. Ignatius, a Catholic boarding school for misbehaving boys, Teddy befriends troubled classmate Cooper. While nearly all must endure the physical and verbal abuse of the priests, Teddy helplessly watches Cooper descend into depression and hatred as a result of ongoing sexual abuse. Teddy's authentic voice powerfully recounts this tragic tale.

      (Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

    • Kirkus

      April 15, 2012
      When 14-year-old Teddy is classified as troublesome, disrespectful and defiant of authority, his despised stepfather sends him off to St. Ignatius Academy for Boys, an isolated Roman Catholic boarding school. St. Iggy's is run by priests who ruthlessly enforce discipline through intimidation and abuse. Narrator Teddy befriends the wisecracking, Wordsworth-loving Cooper. The boys use their wits and humor to cope, but the endless beatings and humiliations take their toll, especially on the fragile Cooper. He reaches his breaking point when he becomes the victim of Father Prince, a pedophile. Teddy watches helplessly as Cooper withdraws into his own private nightmare, and Prince targets Teddy himself as his next victim. The only positive adult relationship the boys have at school is with the janitor, who takes them to his farmhouse outside of town on Saturdays to enjoy a brief period of normalcy. The priests are either bullies or predators; even Brother Joe, who seems sympathetic to Teddy, betrays his trust. Although set in a well-realized 1959, Vasey's brisk, sharply written, riveting narrative transcends any time period. A vivid, disturbing and all-too-real topical story. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)

      COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Lexile® Measure:570
  • Text Difficulty:2-3

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