October 1, 2012
A high school sophomore kidnaps his estranged father at gunpoint. Fitzgerald, or Fitz as he calls himself, has never met his biological father. His mother is maddeningly evasive on the subject, but Fitz learns that his father, a wealthy lawyer, lives nearby from the address on the monthly child support checks. He obtains a gun with unbelievable ease from a schoolyard drug dealer and hatches a plan to hold his dad hostage with the vague notion of getting "a lump sum of his father's time and attention. Back pay." Despite the sinister presence of the gun and his father's initial shock, the two are soon enjoying a pleasant day out together, which includes a trip to the zoo and lunch at a diner. But Fitz quickly realizes that it will take more than one afternoon to bond with this person who is essentially a stranger. "What you get at gunpoint, that's not love...you can take a guy's car, but you can't jack someone's heart." The distant, third-person, present-tense narration fails to convey the emotional urgency of the provocative premise, and the gun, which is hardly mentioned after its initial appearance and harmlessly discharged once near the end, feels like a titillating contrivance added on to spice up an otherwise unremarkable story of father/son conflict. Ends not with a bang, but a whimper. (Fiction. 12-15)
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December 1, 2012
Gr 7 Up-Fitzgerald, 15, doesn't know his father, but after finding out that he's moved back to St. Paul, decides upon a desperate plan to meet him. It starts by putting a gun in the man's face. What follows is a touching, if odd, story of a teen trying to understand the father he never knew. He learns what his dad does now, how his parents first met, and, most important, why he left him and his mother in the first place. This is a story that has been told many times in young adult books, but here it's done exceptionally well, and the motivation behind Fitz choosing a gun to get the fatherly attention he's never received yet desperately needs is understandable even if readers don't necessarily agree with it. Quiet scenes between Fitz and Curtis are written with an understated poignant emotionality that allows readers to understand Fitz. Things like feeding sea lions and later having lunch with his father are so strange to him, yet fill a void within him. Even his absentee father somehow becomes a likable character. This is a hard book to put down, and a great one to give to teens trying to make sense of divorce.-Ryan P. Donovan, New York Public Library
Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2012
Grades 8-12 Named for author F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fitz is a typical 15-year-old, except that when readers first meet him, he is packing heat: a Smith & Wesson. Why? Simple. He plans to kidnap the father he has never known, a man Fitz's mother refuses to talk about, instead offering only hints, echoes and glimpses, scraps and shards. Fitz is determined to have some quality time with his father to find out why the man left when Fitz was still a baby. Fitz realizes that his actions will have consequences and that his life will never be the same again. But will that be good or bad? A professor of English and the author of three previous novels, Cochrane has written a moving, character-driven story that explores with subtlety and quiet compassion the struggle of a boy to fill a void in his life and find the love of a father.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2013
Discovering his estranged father lives nearby, typically mild-mannered Fitz (quite implausibly) obtains a gun and "kidnaps" him for a day. But Fitz's anger gradually dissipates--and shifts focus--the more he gets to know his father and understand his past. Parts of the single-day plot drag, and, though the heavy emotions may tug heartstrings, a weak ending lessens their final impact.
(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)