Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos

Author Jack Gantos (Rotten Ralph, Joey Pigza) thought his life was uninteresting and not worth writing about and he needed to live more before he could fulfil his purpose.   A short while later, in jail, he had certainly found something to write about.  At 19 while working for his father in St. Croix he met a drug smuggler who offered him a job and when they were done Gantos would walk away with 10,000 dollars.   He couldn’t pass up the oppurtunity to get off the island which had come under racial unrest and a chance to live.  He was sailing up the Atlantic coast in rickety small ship with 2,000 lbs. of hash.

This book was funny, tragic, and compelling.  It’s highly recomended for high school readers looking for an adventure and redemption story.  Jack Gantos is now the very successful author of the Joey Pigza series.

Rash by Pete Hautman

Pete Hautman has created a frighteningly real future. Criminal offenses are rampant, especially when you consider vehicular yelling is a crime punishable by years of labor in a McDonald’s prison. Bo is a normal kid that fears, like most, he will grow up to be just like his parents. More specifically his father, who has spent most of Bo’s life in prison, has an anger problem which Bo realizes he also has. At school, Bo is pushed past his breaking point and causes a violation that gets him sent to a work prison. Once there he is given a choice: work the pizza assembly line, play the barbaric sport of football, or get eaten by the polar bears that roam along the fence. Choosing football, Bo is adjusting well to prison life, until a surprisingly familiar lawyer shows up in Bo’s defense. Follow Bo’s story through this quick paced novel set in a world not too different from our own.