Unstoppable Moses

July 1, 2018

Gr 10 Up-Seventeen-year-old Moses Hill is on his way to a court-ordered wilderness camp as a "Buddy" in charge of elementary school kids. Attempting to put his arson-tinged delinquency behind him, he is determined not to dwell on the circumstances that have also left his cousin and best friend shot by a hair-trigger police officer. Despite some truly horrific experiences, Moses is open to making friends and trying responsibility on for size-at least, enough to get his criminal record expunged. However, as a particularly tortured teen, Moses takes some very convoluted detours on his way toward forgiveness. It is clear that Smith has worked very hard to eschew the tropes of typical YA novels, but Moses's journey is a little too self-aware to be believable-albeit entertaining with the snarky footnotes and internal monologues that accompany readers from page one. Still, the author has created characters devoid of the saccharine happily ever after and they feel real, even if the plot gets a little confused about which story it's supposed to be telling. VERDICT Perfect for mature high school students who love John Green and Jesse Andrews.-Michael Marie Jacobs, Darlington School, GA

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2018
Two boys' prank goes badly wrong, with life-changing consequences. At 8 years old, Moses was shot by his cousin and best friend, Charlie, and died for three minutes. Since that day he has been considered a miracle boy by his family and has had an almost reckless sense of indestructibility. Now high school juniors, Moses and Charlie "were trying to be funny, and maybe even do something good. Stupidly." But when their prank--which involves destruction of models representing major world religions--goes off the rails, they are labeled arsonists and criminals. The townspeople insist that what they did was a hate crime. Charlie is shot by the police, but since Moses is a minor and the judge determines he isn't dangerous, he is given a chance to redeem himself and is ordered to serve as a camp counselor for a week, working with elementary school-aged kids. Can Moses, who has high aspirations for college and his future, find his way through the darkness and tragedy? A Midwestern teen struggles with loss, guilt, and finding his place in the world without his best friend in this character-driven novel that at times veers into the excessively wordy. Major characters are assumed white.Smith weaves between past and present, exploring growth and personal relationships in this emotional debut novel. (Fiction. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 8, 2018
The people of Guthrie, Ill., blame high school senior Moses for burning down the local bowling alley, an event that ended with his cousin—his best friend—getting shot by the police. But is Moses really to blame? If so, will he find forgiveness? In this highly introspective debut novel set during the aftermath of a prank gone terribly wrong, Smith persuasively and empathically portrays Moses’s conflicting emotions as he comes to terms with a traumatic event. Instead of going to jail, Moses is sentenced to a one-week camp where he is to be a “buddy” to a group of eight- to 11-year-olds. In a place where no one except the camp director knows about his past, Moses begins to feel like his old self, making friends with the other buddies and mentoring Lump, a bullied girl. But when Moses plays hooky and a child goes missing, his feelings of guilt and shame rise to the surface. Rather than casting judgment, Smith leaves readers to decide the degree of Moses’s culpability. This thought-provoking, gut-wrenching novel presents human nature as it is instead of as it should be. Ages 12–18. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, The Bent Agency.

September 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 Fresh off accidentally burning down his town's bowling alley, Moses gets one last chance to change his reckless ways as a counselor at a youth camp. When he arrives, though, he finds that the differences between being a counselor and being the counseled are few. Many campers?as well as his fellow counselors?have deep-seated issues they are dealing with. Moses' is especially painful: he feels tremendous guilt for the death of his best friend and cousin, Charlie, who died that same fateful night as the fire. Through a friendship with a young camper nicknamed Lump, who is facing her own demons, Moses may find the redemption he so desperately needs. Smith's style is reminiscent of John Green's oeuvre. He balances the characters' tragic stories with offbeat humor and deftly timed pop culture references. Smith also juxtaposes well-placed flashbacks to Moses' time with Charlie with his current experiences at camp to show how profound his guilt really is, emphasizing the journey he must undertake for self-absolution. An enjoyable read for any fan of contemporary YA fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)