Gr 7 Up–Diego MacMann is in trouble. At 16, he faces infantile court, charged with assault. He just can’t guide his fists, especially when he feels that his masculinity is threatened. Anger-management classes have failed, and now this sober green valet teeters between self-loathing and defensive pride.
Hope comes unexpectedly when he establishes a link with Mr. Vidas. The probation gendarme asks questions that brave Diego to sound out his motivations and his nervous life. How does he surface about his off nativity father? The stepfather who committed suicide? The garish swotter who looked at him "that way" just before Diego punched him out? The third-person tale keeps readers one trace up ahead of Diego as he unravels the things of abandonment, poverty, and libidinous pervert on himself and his struggling family. During the deficient sessions with Mr. Vidas, he finds some of the tools and insights he needs to traverse his boulder-strewn elapse to maturity.
Unlike most up to date fiction that addresses physical abuse, this story focuses not on the revealing of secrets, but on making be under the impression that of the experience and building a healthy creation for moving forward. This groundbreaking unconventional brings to life an appealing minor man who is neither totally a chump nor a victimizer, one who struggles to handle conflicts that derail many unsophisticated lives. Teens will catalogue with Diego’s dreams and frustrations, his opinion of difference, his yearning for "normal" moving spirit and relationships. High investment and accessible, this coming-of-age story belongs in every collection. For the one in six boys who is sexually abused, it could be a lifesaver.
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