Give a Boy a Gun

For Ages: 12 and up

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customer reviews

Featuring a new trim size and a new line look, Todd Strasser’s acclaimed account of school violence that Kirkus Reviews calls “vivid, distressing, and all too real.”

For as long as they can remember, Brendan and Gary have been mercilessly teased and harassed by the jocks who rule Middletown High. But not anymore. Stealing a small arsenal of guns from a neighbor, they take their classmates hostage at a school dance. In the panic of this desperate situation, it soon becomes clear that only one thing matters to Bendan and Gary: revenge.

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Book details:

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
224 pages |
ISBN 9781442433564 |
March 2012 |
Grades 7 and up

$10.99 List Price

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Praise

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“* Both haunting and harrowing, the book deserves a wide readership, discussion and debate.”

– Booklist, starred review

“A disturbing and provocative novel.”

– KLIATT

“Vivid, distressing, and all too real…The multiple points of view create empathy for a wide range of characters and enhance the book's in-your-face reality. Important, insightful, and chilling.”

– Kirkus Reviews

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Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Around 10 P.M. on Friday, February 27, Gary Searle died in the gymnasium at Middletown High School. After the bullet smashed through the left side of his skull and tore into his brain, he probably lived for ten to fifteen seconds.

The brain is a fragile organ suspended in a liquid environment. Not only does a bullet destroy whatever brain tissue is in its path, but the shock waves from the impact severely jar the entire organ, ripping apart millions of delicate structures and connections. In the seconds that follow, the brain swells with blood and other fluids. The parts of the brain that control breathing...