My Lists
Featured Lists
Why I Fight (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover))
By Oaks, Judy
Publishers Summary:
Wyatt Reaves takes the seat next to you, bloodied and soaking wet, and he is a big-fisted beast. Tell him to stretch out like an X across asphalt and you've got a parking space. But Wyatt's been taking it lying down for too long, and he is NOT happy.Since he turned twelve and a half, he's been living with his uncle, a traveling salesman of mysterious agenda and questionable intent. Soon, Uncle Spade sees the potential in "kiddo" to earn cash. And that's enough to keep the boy around for nearly six years. But what life does Wyatt deserve? Alcohol? Drugs? Bare-fisted fights? Tattoos? No friends? No role models? Living in a car? If you're brave enough to stay and listen, you'll hear an astounding story. It's not a pretty road Wyatt has traveled, but growing up rarely is.
- ISBN
- 978-1-41691-177-7
- Publisher
REVIEWS
School Library Journal
Reviewed on July 1, 2009
Gr 9-Up Wyatt Reaves opens his soul to an unnamed stranger on a bus taking him away from his bleak past and negligent parents, Fever and Ma. When he was 12, he burned down his family home. For the next five years, he is taken on a circuitous road trip by Uncle Spade, Fevers brother, an unscrupulous, hard-drinking traveling salesman with girlfriends in several locales. Stopping in Arkansas, Wyatt makes friends with Clark, a small, bespectacled boy. Together they invent a game of cruelty to polliwogs, but soon the beat-u...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Horn Book Guide
Reviewed on October 1, 2009
Eighteen-year-old Wyatt narrates the harrowing story of the six years he spent crisscrossing the country with his uncle Spade, an exp...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
Junior Library Guild
Reviewed on April 21, 2009
The moving story of a good-hearted boy thrust into the dangerous world of bare-fist fighting, offers a look at how a sport can become a means of escape for someone in desperate circumstances. J. Adams Oaks first introduces his protagonist, Wyatt, as a twelve-year-old living with his hard-drinking, nomadic uncle, Spade, who sponges off "ladyfriends" when he isn't selling illegal substances. Even at a young age, Wyatt realizes that he's completely different from his absent parents and his quick-tempered uncle and grandmother: "I didn't want to be hateful. I just wanted pe...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
