Sleep Rough Tonight - Hardcover

Bone, Ian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525473734 ISBN 13: 9780525473732

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 2005

Synopsis

When he gets out of the detention center for serving time due to Alex's confession, Jockey acts as a friend to Alex again and dares him to spend a night out on the streets with him, yet in taking the dare, Alex quickly comes to realize that surviving the streets will be less frightening than surviving Jockey's planned revenge.

About this title

About the Author

Ian Bone is the author of more than twenty books for young readers, including The Song of an Innocent Bystander.

Reviews

Grade 8-10–Alex is a skinny kid with a wit that won't allow him to just shut up in dangerous situations. At school, he's teased by bigger, meaner students–teasing that goes so far as toilet dunking–but he doesn't feel bullied. When a former idol, the Jockey, returns from reform school, Alex is frightened but falls in with him, leading to a nighttime adventure. This Australian novel is as gritty as the title suggests, but character development is underdone, leaving Alex, the Jockey, and Alex's friend Marta all just a short step away from being caricatures. The protagonist is relatively likable, but his devotion to the Jockey lacks realistic emotional resonance.Their exploits indeed become harrowing, but the premise–that by spending the night on their own in the city they will be doing something daring–doesn't seem, at first, to be bold enough to suit the fancy of either boy. Marta's character is just as problematic as it wavers between goody-goody and soul mate. Kevin Brooks's Kissing the Rain (Scholastic, 2004) plowed some of this same ground, with more aesthetic success.–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gr. 8-12. Alex is nervous when the Jockey, an older boy just returned from juvenile detention, announces that he wants to take him on a grueling, urban weekend adventure. Alex can't decide if the Jockey is motivated by friendship or revenge, but he follows Jockey into the bowels of the city, away from his father, away from his friend Marta and her goodness, away from being a good-boy nobody, and into "hell." Bone has created characters who are hard to like and also hard to forget. Only Marta warrants empathy. Yet readers' hearts will pound as they follow Alex through the wee weekend hours, through empty warehouse lots, inside freeway bridge structures, to a nail-biting final confrontation. Terror, adventure, and the struggle between right and wrong come together in this high-tension story of bullying at its extreme form, from one of Australia's most popular writers for young adults. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525473734
• ISBN 13: 9780525473732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256