The Children and the Wolves

December 5, 2011
Writing in the visceral narrative style readers have come to expect from him, Rapp (Punkzilla) plunges readers into the minds of three emotionally disturbed teens and the four-year-old girl they have kidnapped and keep chained up in a basement. The driving force behind the trio’s actions is intelligent and cold-blooded 14-year-old Bounce, who tests the limits of her power by manipulating insecure Wiggins and violent Orange into being her pawns, “my perfect little monkey boys,” feeding them prescription drugs, toying with them sexually, and making them fight each other. The three collect donations for the girl’s disappearance with the aim of buying a Glock to kill an elderly poet. Only Wiggins’s struggling conscience stands in the way of Bounce’s bloodlust. Bigotry, neglect, violence, and desensitization to all of the above intermingle in a story that’s particularly devoid of hope, even for Rapp. Even four-year-old Frog seems beyond salvation, as she obsessively plays a violent video game that isn’t any more disturbing than what’s going on in the rest of the book. It’s an unrelentingly bleak indictment of a world far gone, where the best—perhaps only—option is to abandon society altogether. Ages 14–up.

February 1, 2012

Gr 10 Up-Bounce, 14, is on a path of horrifying behavior. Her wealthy parents are in the pharmaceutical business, are rarely home, and pay little attention to their sociopathic daughter. Bounce has endless access to drugs like Oxycontin, and she uses them to attract and control male sidekicks Orange and Wiggins. Both come from poverty and troubled homes; Orange is the more willing of the two. When Bounce gets angry at a visiting poet in her Honors English class, she decides to seek revenge through a complicated scheme that involves kidnapping a toddler and some disturbing violence. This book is reminiscent of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (Random, 1965), only it involves middle school students. It has a healthy infusion of cringe-worthy scenes and a cavalier attitude toward sex. Wiggins is the only character who seems to have any conscience at all, but he is not enough to make readers feel good about this novel. But that is not the author's intention. The raw and edgy story line and language have a powerful impact, and the novel will deservedly find an appreciative audience. Give this one to mature fans of books like Joanne Harris's Blueeyedboy (Doubleday, 2010) and Sapphire's Push (Knopf, 1996).-Jake Pettit, Thompson Valley High School, Loveland, CO

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2012
Two wayward teens fall under the evil thrall of a third in this disturbing tale by the Printz Honor–winning author of Punkzilla (2009). Fourteen-year-old amoral honors student Bounce convinces two socially challenged and drug-addicted seventh graders, Wiggins and Orange, to kidnap a 3-year-old girl and imprison her in Orange's basement. Then the three manufacture posters of the girl they have dubbed the Frog and use them to collect "donations" for the missing child. In reality, Bounce is saving up to buy a gun, which she intends to use on a local author who offended her during a class visit. Orange is all in, but sensitive Wiggins, who imagines his soul as "a little perfect crystal egg floating in your chest," begins to question the plan, especially when Bounce hints that the Frog's time is running out. Though the slim novel's premise is profoundly unsettling, Rapp's poetic use of language makes for a brutally beautiful read. There is a drug dealer with "a face like a rubber shark" and buildings that "look perfect, like they got baked in a oven with some brownies." The author continues to push the boundaries of fiction for teens by providing an unrelentingly real and intensely powerful voice for the disenfranchised youth who dangle on society's edge, forgotten until they commit random acts of violence because they have been shown no other way. Hard to read, impossible to forget. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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Starred review from November 15, 2011
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* In the wake of such modern masterpieces as 33 Snowfish (2003) and the Printz Honorwinning Punkzilla (2009), readers should know the kind of grueling, soulful, gut-punching work to expect from Rapp. Still, be warned: this is his most hellishand hellishly readablevision yet. Bounce, a rich 14-year-old genius (and one of the most frightening characters you'll find in YA lit), has two 13-year-old lowlife friends, Orange and Wiggins (her two lost wildebeests ), in her thrall, thanks to her towering IQ, brash sex appeal, and endless supply of OxyContin. For two months they've been keeping a three-year-old girl locked in Orange's basement, feeding her a selection of cold cereal and stolen pharmaceuticals, and meanwhile canvassing the neighborhood to solicit donations, ostensibly to help find the girl but really so that they can buy a gun to shoot a local poet who annoyed Bounce during a school visit. The point of view jumps between the four characters, though it is Wiggins, who suffers sporadic drug-addled attacks of consciousness, who becomes the novel's closest thing to a moral center. Naysayers could gripe that Rapp keeps plumbing the same territory. But he's also creating, book by book, a vital library of the furies and hopes of a forgotten underclass, and always in their own confused, desperate, and endlessly resourceful voices. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Rapp's novels don't typically spawn massive tours or fancy websites, but nonetheless few YA authors are so consistently lauded. Multiple copies may be required.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)