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Starting high school is never easy. Seniors take your lunch money. Girls you’ve known forever are suddenly beautiful and unattainable. And you can never get enough sleep. Could there be a worse time for Scott’s mother to announce she’s pregnant? Scott decides high school would be a lot... read more

Summary edit see section history

It is a story about the high school experiences of a fourteen-year-old boy named Scott Hudson. The narration is peppered with lists, journal entries and Scott's creative writing attempts. While generally light-hearted in tone, the novel explores heavier subjects such as bullying, peer pressure... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

It is a story about the high school experiences of a fourteen-year-old boy named Scott Hudson. The narration is peppered with lists, journal entries and Scott's creative writing attempts. While generally light-hearted in tone, the novel explores heavier subjects such as bullying, peer pressure and teenage suicide.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Sean, new little brother: is Scott's younger brother, born at the end of the book. In the Journal he was known as "Smelly".
  • Scott Hudson: Likeable and funny freshman who's not sure how he fits in as he enters the big new world of high school.Fourteen-year-old Scott Hudson is the narrator and protagonist of the story. He is a high school freshman with a love for words and a somewhat impaired social life. He has an integrity and a good sense of humor to him, and can find something good in the worst of things. He is a little too impulsive when it comes to handling his crush, which results in taking part in way too many extracurricular activities such as stage crew, the school's newspaper and the student council. Besides literature (in particular "spooky stuff"), his interests include fishing and hanging out with his older brother Bobby. In the end, Scott's good sense of humor earned him new friends and a new respect from his parents and Bobby.
  • Lee: doesnt care what people think, different from everyone.is a new girl at the high school, transferring to Zenger in the beginning of October. She sits with the popular girls (though she ignores them and vice versa). She is not afraid to be herself and to step from the safety of her chosen identity if the situation demands it. Lee has many piercings, including one on her tongue, and her hair is dyed green (later black and, later yet, orange). She has rather morbid interests, a deadpan sense of humor, a love for books and a zest for life. Lee creeps Scott out but he finds himself talking to her more and more nevertheless. They are friends by the end of the book, and most likely dating, since at the last dance, Scott says that he likes dancing with her more than Julia. Lee is a daughter of a phlebotomist and a lawyer whose specialty is getting around antipollution laws.
  • Julia: A stunning girl who scott has a huge crush on, atleast scott thought. is Vernon's ex-girlfriend and Scott's crush for the whole year and finally gets up the courage to talk to her at the end of the year dance where they dance and discovers that she really does remember that they were friends in kindergarten. Although she dumps Vernon, she doesn't date Scott. Nevertheless the friendship between the two rekindles during the dance.
  • Wesley Cobble: who takes scotts money and becomes friends with scott. high school senior. Always calm and collected, he helps "relieve" freshmen of their spare change, drives a Mustang, rarely abides to speed limits, comes out from fights unscathed, steals soda from vending machines, smokes, never pays for his gas, skips class, steals knives and saltshakers from restaurants and often modifies his file to remove his misdeeds from the permanent record. Despite his rowdy behavior, he abides by a set of his own principles (which Scott can't figure out). He eventually befriends Scott and repeatedly stands up for him. Wesley helps Scott out a lot throughout the story. Wesley's father is the owner of "Wesco" a company that rents limos, snowmobiles and jet skis, which Wesley sometimes "borrows". Wesley likes hot chocolate with little marshmallows
  • Bobby: Scott's older brother who is a gutair player. Scott's big brother; His high school experience was a nightmare for his parents, since he skipped history seventeen times in a row, and dropped out of school half a year before his graduation. Bobby is tall, strong and good with tools. He also has trouble reading; he figured none of his teachers would notice that if he caused enough trouble, which turned out to be the case. Bobby is also a talented guitarist and eventually joins his old band, who all soon get their lucky day and are offered to perform as an opening act in a tour. He loves his brother, and doesn't want Scott or Sean to end up like him
  • Kyle: Scott friend since kindergarten. Eventally makes the wrestling team and starts hanging out with the jocks and dumps scott. Later on he hangs out with vernon who is scotts enemy.
  • Scott's Mom and Dad: they are secretive and don't let him in on many things they are thinking, espicially her pregnancy. Scott's dad: tall and good with tools. Never went to college. Likes fishing and repairing his Corvette. Works in auto repair. He reminds Scott of Atticus Finch since he's quiet, but not a wimp.Scott's mom: kind. During her pregnancy, often gets cravings. She likes cooking and never went to college
  • Patrick: scotts friend who moves away to japan.He is the friend that stays with Scott before moving to Texas, which upset and saddened Scott. He is the only one of the three to have had a close friendship with Scott. Has been Scott's friend since the second grade
  • Louden "Mouth" Kandeski: is an annoying motormouth and Scott's neighbor. He reviews books for the high school newspaper. At the school dances, he roams around the gym asking every girl to dance with him to no avail. Nobody likes him, but he seems oblivious to the fact and seems to be incorrigibly optimistic until the day he has had enough and unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide by hanging himself. After that he's transferred to another school, but stays in touch with Scott, who was always nice to him.
  • Mr. Franka: teaches Honors English and quickly becomes Scott's favorite teacher. A natural in his field, he educates without analyzing literature works to the point where they are boring. He can make his class fun without any gimmicks or jokes, and the books he chooses for his lessons range from well-known classics and poetry to graphic novels and movie scripts.
  • Vernon: The quarterback for the football team, and Scott's rival for Julia. He was originally Julia's boyfriend, but she dumped him after realizing how much of a jerk he was. He beats up Scott for liking Julia. During the dance, he tries to beat up Scott again, but Scott gets protected by his new friends.
  • Kelly: julia's friend
  • Mitch: has been Scott's friend since sixth grade. The best-looking of the "Three Musketeers," he leaves the quartet early in the story when he gets a girlfriend at least a year older than himself and starts to spend all his time with her.
  • Tom Swifties: "I have lost my legs below the ankles!" Tom said defeatedly."Have they started on the new condominiums?" Tom said constructively."I refuse to read Shakespeare!" Tom said unwillingly."I will not clean the toilet seat," Tom said peevishly."I'd like a hot dog," Tom said frankly."Stop this horse," Tom said haltingly."I don't know the words to this song," Tom said humbly."I lost my fingers," Tom said disjointedly."I lost my wrists," Tom said disjointedly."I lost my elbows," Tom said disarmingly."I lost my ribs," Tom said decidedly."The worms are eating my organs," Tom said halfheartedly."I've been sliced in half," Tom said intuitively."Who sneezed on the hamburger," Tom said snottily."Who turned off the lights?" Tom said dimly."Flux rox," Scott said, conclusively. <This one has extra meaning, as the last words of the book>.
  • Mr. Cravutto: teaches gym. He often pushes his students to the limit and regularly insults them, calling them "sissies" and "wimps." When the school is short a Spanish teacher he fills in (even though he doesn't know a word of Spanish and has the students do push-ups in class).
  • Mandy: a senior and an editor of the high school's newspaper. She wears tight tops.
  • Mr. Perchal: directs the school musical (A Tale of Two Cities). After Scott auditions for a part (another vain attempt to hang out with Julia), he asks Scott to join the technical theater crew.
  • Ms. De Gaulle: is Scott's first Spanish teacher. She is French and speaks Spanish with a French accent.
  • Mr. Ferragamo: Add a description of this character.
  • Mr. Kamber: is Scott's second Spanish teacher. He speaks with a thick Australian accent and reassures the class with a "N'warries, might" (meaning "No worries, mate") when they say they don't understand him.
  • Ms. Pell: is the good-natured life skills teacher
  • Ms. Phong: is Scott's third Spanish teacher. She is Vietnamese and doesn't know English.
  • Ms. Cabrini: is Scott's fourth, and final, Spanish teacher. She was born in Argentina, lived in Mexico and Spain, also visited Puerto Rico and most of the countries in Central America. As such, she is the only competent Spanish teacher Scott gets.
  • Ben: a skinny, acne-faced student in charge of the stage crew. He usually sits around playing poker and makes the freshmen do most of the work. He later has new respect for Scott. At the last high school dance of Scott's freshmen year, he comes to Scott's aid against Vernon by keeping him from beating Scott up.
  • Sheldon Murmbower: an unpopular freshman who the older students always hit on the head on the bus (referred to as "a game of Smack the Sheldon"). Scott sits behind him for months to avoid getting smacked.
  • Terry Swain: : a good-natured jock who is on both the basketball and the football teams. According to Scott, he is so fast he burns the field, and the girls think he's sweet. He is nice to both Scott and Lee.
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Hey, the world needs both. Engines and sonnets. They both take us places we’d never reach on our own.”

First Sentence edit see section history

We plunged toward the future without a clue.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. David Lubar (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Dutton Childrens Books
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2005
ISBN: 0525473114
Page Count: 279

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

really funny book and realistic but funny


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