Will

September 27, 2010
When 17-year-old Will drops his pants to moon the bus of girls from the sister school to his all-boys academy, he is exiled to the land of geeks, aka, the band for the school musical, a punishment suggested by his English teacher. The school leadership has grown weary of Will's hijinks, and this is his last chance to prove himself. But in the year since his father died, Will has ceased to care about most things, dwelling in a silent grief that is slowly revealed to readers. But through the strong supporting cast—Zach, the seventh-year student who idolizes Will; Elizabeth, Will's crush; Chris, Will's best friend; and Mark, the lead in the musical, who comes out to Will—Will is brought slowly back to the land of the living. Readers should find it easy to sympathize with Will's vibrant, deadpan narration and his frequent use of slang, while recognizing that his jocular exterior hides a deeper vulnerability. Debut novelist Boyd effectively handles Will's final outpouring of repressed emotions: the personal growth achieved by her realistic, likeable protagonist is abundantly clear. Ages 12–up.

June 1, 2010

Aussie soccer jock and guitar player Will is forced to join the band of his high school's musical as punishment for mooning a bus full of girls. Since his father's sudden death a year ago, Will has buried his feelings by pulling pranks and ignoring the consequences. Once in the cast, he finds himself crushing on the female lead, navigating a cautious friendship with the gay male lead and unexpectedly mentoring an adoring seventh grader. With the help of his new friends, he finally acknowledges his deep sadness and begins to heal. For a novel with the tagline, "Death by high school musical?" a little more musical detail, à la E. Lockhart's Dramarama (2007), would have been nice. Instead readers are given a hefty dose of My So-Called Life through pages of Will's internal angst rather than the Glee the package seems to promise. Furthermore, Will's English assignment of cataloging teen stereotypes within the musical feels clunky and didactic. Still, Will's feelings and relationship struggles are authentic, and the dialogue is crisp when the author pulls her message punches. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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August 1, 2010

Gr 8 Up-Will Armstrong is a popular, Year Eleven guitar-playing cutup at St. Andrew's College, a boys' high school in Sydney, Australia. When a dare goes wrong, he is punished by being assigned to work as a "musician and general dogsbody" for the musical staged by St. Andrew's and its sister school, Lakeside Girls. Will isn't, as he expects, deserted by his popular friends, although his Saturdays are now spent at rehearsals rather than at "footy" matches. The cringe-worthy choice of musical (The Boy Friend) gives him the chance to meet, albeit awkwardly, with a Lakeside girl, and he becomes a friend to and protector of Zachariah Cohen, who is in Year Seven and is affectionately known as "Freak." Will is quickly given a lot of responsibility (he is conducting all of the student musicians) and, for the most part, he rises to the occasion. Subplots surface: he refuses to discuss the death of his father, something that hints of a traumatic secret that is never quite explained. He must also examine more deeply his stereotypical views of how a gay student might look and behave. This interesting book, which, despite playing to the High School Musical crowd, doesn't focus on music, chronicles a young adult's growth toward maturity. The Australian spellings and slang ("whingeing," "cutting your grass," "dacked himself") will give pause to many readers, but the casual use of four-letter words is within keeping of many a 17-year-old's vocabulary.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

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