Books for the Teen Age —New York Public Library

2003

Booklist

"Rapp creates a powerful voice in Blacky, whose honest, raw account shows desperate struggles just to keep breathing moving: ‘My legs are ok, I tell myself. My legs are good.‘"

Horn Book

"Rapp's portrayal of the abused child is sensitive, sympathetic, and honest; Blacky's conflicted feelings toward Al and his own inappropriate sexual responses blend matter-of-factly with sweet overtures for friendship and affection from a schoolmate. The reader suffers with Blacky his cruel torment at school and shares his brief joy in connecting with another outcast. The novel circles tragically back to its beginning as though in a downward spiral: when Blacky returns at the end to the same inhospitable woods, this time in search of a mythical paradise, we can only hope for its existence."

Voice of Youth Advocate

"Readers hear Blacky's story through his own voice —articulate, humorous, believably early-adolescent. Intelligent and determined as Blacky is, the reader sees the inadequacy of his resources and his choices. It makes one's heart ache. When he decides to follow a deer into the woods, one hopes against hope that he will indeed find paradise. Rapp's books are never easy. … His characters suffer, usually alone. It is the honest recognition that young people can suffer, face really difficult questions, that makes his books valuable."

Booklist

"Rapp creates a powerful voice in Blacky, whose honest, raw account shows desperate struggles just to keep breathing moving: ‘My legs are ok, I tell myself. My legs are good.‘"

Horn Book

"Rapp's portrayal of the abused child is sensitive, sympathetic, and honest; Blacky's conflicted feelings toward Al and his own inappropriate sexual responses blend matter-of-factly with sweet overtures for friendship and affection from a schoolmate. The reader suffers with Blacky his cruel torment at school and shares his brief joy in connecting with another outcast. The novel circles tragically back to its beginning as though in a downward spiral: when Blacky returns at the end to the same inhospitable woods, this time in search of a mythical paradise, we can only hope for its existence."

Voice of Youth Advocate

"Readers hear Blacky's story through his own voice —articulate, humorous, believably early-adolescent. Intelligent and determined as Blacky is, the reader sees the inadequacy of his resources and his choices. It makes one's heart ache. When he decides to follow a deer into the woods, one hopes against hope that he will indeed find paradise. Rapp's books are never easy. … His characters suffer, usually alone. It is the honest recognition that young people can suffer, face really difficult questions, that makes his books valuable."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"The book is particularly strong in its treatment of human dynamics: there's cold realism in the peer relationships that leave Blacky abandoned and tormented at school, and there's an unkempt and understated tenderness in Blacky's strange but bolstering friendship with another outcast. There are similarities here to Brock Coles'The Facts Speak for Themselves (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 10/97) and Jeanne Willis' The Truth or Something (reviewed below) in both the treatment of sexual abuse and the raw depiction of a life in what seems to be irreversible entropy. Rapp's narrative is less well-shaped, leaving readers attuned to Blacky's world yet unsure of the point of experiencing it, but it's still a vivid exploration of the life of a kid with little to lose."

ALAN Review

"Evocative prose and realistic dialogue make this book positively gripping, and appealing especially to reluctant readers. Teens will appreciate the unflinching honesty of Rapp's writing.... [Rapp] cuts to the emotional core of his characters, leaving the reader with a strong emotional impact."