See what I mean? 100 Sideways Miles is a realistic, coming-of-age story filled with raunchy humor and sweet emotions all at the same time. I've found this to be a hard sell in my library just because it's not really "about" anything specific. But students who are willing to give it a shot will surely be rewarded.
High schooler Finn Easton has spent most of his life defined by two things:
1. When he was a little boy, Finn and Mother were involved in a freak accident when a truck headed for the knackery overturned and a dead horse fell off the overpass onto them below. It killed Finn's mother and left him with a broken back. He still bears a scar from the accident and is epileptic. He occasionally has seizures where he blanks out for minutes or hours at a time.
2. His father wrote a science-fiction novel that amassed a cult following. The main character is a boy named Finn.
Finn has few acquaintances other than his best friend, Cade, a beer-drinking, tobacco-chewing, profanity-spewing star of the baseball team. He largely keeps to himself because people inevitably want to talk about his dad's book. When he meets new student Julia, Finn finds himself falling in love for the first time.
There is much to like about this book. I loved how funny Cade is and how good a friend he is to Finn. For instance, one year before the state academic test, Cade convinces the entire sophomore class to just bubble in C-A-D-E over and over onto the answer sheet. They perform so highly, the governor himself comes to the school to congratulate them on their outstanding academic achievement and gives them all an ice cream party.
I also like how real Finn seems as a character. He's not particularly outgoing and often answers "Um," whenever asked a question he can't/doesn't want to answer. As indicated by the title, the book is all about journeys - figurative and literal. And no one takes a journey without coming out changed on the other side.
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