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Things Change

Chasing Tail Lights

Nailed

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Patrick's Books: Nailed Nailed

Summary

The nail that sticks out farthest gets hammered the hardest.

Flint Southwestern High School is run by a cult: the jockarchy. And Bret Hendricks could never fit into their conformity cult. Bret doesn?t mind standing out from the crowd when he?s on stage acting or singing in his band.

And he feels at home in his funky girlfriend?s arms because sticking out together doesn?t seem as hard. But loyalties aren?t what Bret thinks they are, as his safe havens seem to disappear one by one, and he learns that sometimes you just have to risk getting hammered in order to build a great future..

Published by Walker Books for Young Readers

Reviews

School Library Journal (May 1, 2006)

Gr 9 Up-Bret does most things the hard way, according to his father, and the teen is sure his dad hates him. He's more interested in acting than sports and covers his long green-tinted hair with a fedora. It takes Bret most of his junior year to understand what his dad always told him: "the nail that sticks out the farthest gets hammered hardest" as he struggles to deal with the "jockarchy" at school and their constant taunts (mostly being called a faggot or a homo because he's a born artist). As in Jones's Things Change (Walker 2004), the father/son relationship is central to this story. While readers may feel a bit hit over the head with the nail imagery, tension and frustration build naturally. Subplot relationships are believable and well developed, such as tender sexual moments with Kylee, Bret's girlfriend, and language is realistically raw to reflect Bret's anger and frustration. Issues of free speech, conformity, and the power of the in-crowd all surround Bret as he begins to buck the school's establishment and to stand up for himself. References to pop culture such as WWF, The Green Mile, and Austin Powers will attract many teens. Without being too preachy, Jones gives Bret several mentors: his theater teacher, his school counselor, and, yes, even parents, who help him sort out the roller-coaster ride of his life.-Kelly Czarnecki, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg, NC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Voice of Youth Advocates (April 1, 2006)

Bret Hendricks is reaching his breaking point. Daily verbal and physical abuse at school has him boiling inside, and his fuse is short. Bret, what the hell is wrong with you? his working poor father demands. Odd clothes and a ponytail separate him from the popular jock crowd, making him the proverbial nail waiting to be hammered down. But the Flint, Michigan, junior has talent. He plays a decent bass guitar, scores lead roles in school plays, and sees the big picture beyond the bleak boundaries of the economically depressed city. When sexy Kylee, a senior from another school, enters the picture, Bret falls hard, believing that she is the one great thing that will change his life. Chronicling Bret's junior year, much happens in this hard-hitting novel, perhaps too much. Bret's many problems-he conflicts with at least five other characters-are formed over the first hundred pages and initially the story's focus is unclear. In a stunning twist, however, the plot zeros in on Bret's blind love for Kylee, and here the author hits his mark. Jones writes about the pain of romance from a teen male's point of view and the tone becomes pitch perfect. Male and female teens will instantly feel Bret's agony when love goes bad. Several melodramatic sections of dialogue interrupt the story's flow, but teens will forgive this flaw. More important, it is one of the few teen novels involving a teen male struggling emotionally with both male and female relationships. It belongs in all teen collections.-Rollie Welch.

Booklist (February 15, 2006)

Gr. 9-12. Sixteen-year-old Bret Hendricks personifies his father's adage: The nail that sticks out the farthest gets hammered hardest. He's an actor in a school that worships jocks, a semi-intellectual in a blue-collar family, a kid with a ponytail in a school that values conformity. Although he secretly longs to be normal, he just can't bring himself to give up his love of theater--or his argumentative tendencies. The consequences of his aggressiveness are great: school suspensions, loss of his driving privileges, and a potential lawsuit for damaging a former buddy's car. This is a raw novel, filled with intolerance and pain, and many readers will recognize and identify with the small, everyday horrors that Bret endures because he can't or refuses to conform. Using multidimensional characters, Jones ably explores the dynamics of raising successful, independent children, at the same time exposing the difficulty faced by an educational system charged with celebrating independent thought and individual differences while enforcing rules and keeping kids safe. A tough, revealing book worthy of discussion. --Frances Bradburn Copyright 2006 Booklist

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Playlist for Nailed

When writing Nailed, I was inspired by the works of REM.   Each chapter in the writing stages was given the title of an REM song; then I burned CDs to listen to  while driving / riding in airplanes / etc.  So, I?d hear a song like ?Losing My Religion?, then I?d catapult back to that chapter and those scenes.  While we cut in the editing process that gimmick, here?s the playlist and/or chapter titles for Nailed.

1. Catapult R.E.M. Yahoo!
2. I Don't Sleep, I Dream R.E.M. Yahoo!
3. Crush With Eyeliner R.E.M. Yahoo!
4. Get Up R.E.M. Yahoo!
5. Man On The Moon R.E.M. Yahoo!
6. Everybody Hurts R.E.M. Yahoo!
7. Strange Currencies R.E.M. Yahoo!
8. Radio Free Europe R.E.M. Yahoo!
9. The Great Beyond R.E.M. Yahoo!
10. Talk About The Passion R.E.M. Yahoo!
11. Ignoreland R.E.M. Yahoo!
12. You Are The Everything R.E.M. Yahoo!
13. All The Way To Reno R.E.M. Yahoo!
14. Feeling Gravity's Pull R.E.M. Yahoo!
15. Pretty Persuasion   Yahoo!
16. Imitation Of Life R.E.M. Yahoo!
17. Fall On Me R.E.M. Yahoo!
18. Losing My Religion R.E.M. Yahoo!
19. Harborcoat R.E.M. Yahoo!
20. Camera R.E.M. Yahoo!
21. The One I Love R.E.M. Yahoo!
22. I Believe R.E.M. Yahoo!
23. Moral Kiosk R.E.M. Yahoo!
24. Shiny Happy People R.E.M. Yahoo!
25. Little America R.E.M. Yahoo!
26. Sweetness Follows R.E.M. Yahoo!
27. Exhuming McCarthy R.E.M. Yahoo!
28. Stand R.E.M. Yahoo!
29. It's The End Of The World... R.E.M. Yahoo!
30. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? R.E.M. Yahoo!
31. Nightswimming R.E.M. Yahoo!
32. Begin The Begin R.E.M. Yahoo!
33. Life And How To Live It R.E.M. Yahoo!


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