Kick

I was so excited to see this new book by Walter Dean Myers. It was written with the help of a teenager named Ross Workman. When Ross was thirteen, he wrote a fan e-mail to Walter Dean Myers expressing his interest in writing. The author challenged Ross to write a story with him using alternating voices…Kick is their final product. The first chapter is narrated by Sergeant Jerry Brown, a cop who is interested in working with troubled teens and giving them a second chance. The second chapter is told by Kevin Johnson, a thirteen-year-old star soccer player. The narrations alternate between the two main characters each chapter. After crashing a car with his friend, Christy, in the passenger seat, Kevin is charged with reckless driving, driving a stolen vehicle, and not having a license to drive. Things do not add up. Kevin is staying silent to protect Christy. Christy’s father is pressing charges against Kevin. Sergeant Brown takes an interest in Kevin’s case because Kevin’s father was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. Kevin needs to straighten up and that includes how he handles his anger on the soccer field. If Sergeant Brown cannot get Kevin to come clean about what happened that night, Kevin will end up in Juvie. I think the idea of an award-winning author working with a teenage writer is ingenious. I hope that all of you future writers will read this book and say, “Hey, I could’ve written that!” Click on the video below to hear from both authors.