Mundie Moms

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Book Review- When I Was Joe

Released on January 7, 2010
Source: Publisher
4 Stars- I really liked this book. Go pick it up!

Synopsis (From Frances Lincoln)When Ty witnesses a stabbing, his own life is in danger from the criminals he’s named, and he and his mum have to go into police protection. Ty has a new name, a new look and a cool new image – life as Joe is good, especially when he gets talent spotted as a potential athletics star, special training from an attractive local celebrity and a lot of female attention. But his mum can’t cope with her new life, and the gangsters will stop at nothing to flush them from hiding. Joe’s cracking under extreme pressure, and then he meets a girl with dark secrets of her own.

It took me a few pages to get the hang of this book, since it's the first UK book I've read and some of the words they used for different things and slang was new to me, but once I got comfortable with it I enjoyed it a lot. After poor Tyler goes to the police and confesses to be a witness of a murder he and his single mother are taken away from their home in London are given new identities and lives and are taken to live in a totally different town then what they're used to. Ty/Joe at first is angry about having to go down a grade in school and change his age to a year younger. Once they begin to live in their new home, Joe begins to embrace the change and the new clean slate he's been given to start again. He's seen as the new guy in school and since he's taller and bigger than most of the other boys he becomes very popular with the girls, he soon starts getting used to his life and begins to like himself as Joe.

Most of the book focuses on Ty/Joe's new life and how he tries to make the best of it even though his mother seems very depressed and is not willing to settle in their new home. While I was reading it and wondering where the story was going next we get a new spin in the story when Joe finds a girl that has something to hide and he feels she's someone he can really talk to as they become close and get to know each other. Unfortunately for Joe things don't stay the way he wants them too when the gang members that he's been hiding from get too close to home and his new life starts to crumble around him.

When I Was Joe was something new and very different from what I've read before and I definitely recommend it! It was a realistic view of urban violence and crime from the point of view of a 14 year old boy. Keren David has written a very well developed and original character. Joe was in my opinion a realistic portrayal of a teenage boy, and once we get into his mind while reading this story you can't help but feel the connection to him. I really felt so sorry for him when he was constantly trying to do the right thing but everything just seemed to be going wrong for him. Once you get halfway through the book and you think everything is going right you get all these unexpected surprises and more and more of Ty/Joe's real version of what really happened the night of the murder starts to unravel.

This book has so many serious topics that are woven into the story perfectly in a way that it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable while reading it, but it still seems very real and make you feel like you can relate to the characters and feel for them. Once you get to the end you wish you had the second book in your hands to read on and find out what will happen to Tyler next. Even though this books touches serious topics there's also the big mystery of the murder that keeps you glued to the pages, a bit of a love story that you want to see grow, some wit, and Joe's mind which lightens the story and pulls you right in to the middle of it that you don't want to see it end.

Thank you to Frances Lincoln Children's Books, we have 1 signed book we're giving away.

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