Ink Me

September 1, 2012
Meet Bunny (short for Bernard) O'Toole--mentally slow, physically strong and fast--the observant, nonjudgmental narrator of this convoluted but enjoyable fable of Toronto gang life recorded in believable, phonetically spelled prose. His grandfather never got around to getting a tattoo while he was alive. He's left a letter asking Bunny to do it for him and he does, though the tattoo's design confuses him. The "15" makes sense--it's his age--but why is there a candle next to it? Is the tattoo why Jaden, whom he rescued from a bully, and his gang befriend him, even though they're black and Bunny's white? Accustomed to teasing and harassment, Bunny finds the gang's close bond exhilarating. Soon, he's hanging out at Jaden's gym, where the manager, Morgan, teaches him boxing. (Bunny's gifts reflect a stereotype, the disability equivalent of the "magical negro" trope.) Bunny enthusiastically joins in their mysterious deal to raise money to keep the gym open. He reacts to what he experiences; his impressions aren't funneled through a prism of fears and assumptions. (Readers won't find the gang so benign.) Loyalty is the currency of their world--something Bunny understands. Most intellectually disabled characters in children's fiction are siblings or pals whose treatment by other characters signals their compassion or otherwise. Bunny's a rare hero--not on anyone's journey but his own. (Fiction. 10-14)

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January 1, 2013

Gr 6-9-In Staunton's plot-driven hi/lo story, readers travel with Spencer as he fulfills his grandfather's last wish that the teen get a kiss from the old man's all-time favorite movie star and film it. When he arrives at a nursing home, Gloria Lorraine drags him on a harrowing road trip that involves mobsters and white powder. The action moves fast, and although Spencer is a sweet kid, there is little character development; readers may have a hard time caring about him and his adventures. Some of the story is told in screenplay, some in prose. Ink Me picks up where Jump Cut leaves off, told from Spencer's younger brother's point of view. Grandpa's dying wish was for Bunny to get a tattoo. It has a gang affiliation, and Bunny ends up running from the police after they think he is selling guns. He is eventually arrested and finds out that his tattoo was meant for someone else. When writing a book for students who have a hard time reading, it's not a good strategy for authors to pretend they can't spell or use correct grammar: "I walkd past places that fixd cars and places that sold candy and places that I don't know what they did and places that dint do any thing cuz of the bords in the windo." Because the writing is so distracting, this book can't be recommended for anyone.-Pamela Schembri, Newburgh Enlarged City Schools, NY

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