Claws by Will Weaver

I just finished reading this wonderful book by Will Weaver. It is about a young boy who realizes that at one point, his enire life was pretty close to perfect. However, life quickly unravels when a punk girl with pink hair shows up at his door with a story that will completely rock his perfect world. The rest of the story is a result of her news and how he reacts to it. This is a nicely constructed story that contains a little mystery, outdoor literature, and some romance. Told from a guy's perspective, I can see male students really enjoying this novel. It shows what can happen when you realize your perfect world is not exactly what it once appeared.



In doing some Internet surfing on this book, I stumbled upon Will Weaver's blog--http://blog.willweaverbooks.com/, which is pretty great. I love what he has to say about writing novels for teenage boys--and in my book, as an English teacher, this makes Will Weaver pretty tops on my list right now. I can't wait to check out other novels from him.

I knew there had to be something for boys, so I asked a
clerk, "Where's the Gary Paulsen?" She took me away from the Teen Section,
back into the frilly, "Kids" section. There was a good-sized shelf of
middle level books and authors, including Avi, Christoper Paul Curtis, Paulsen,
Sachar--and big selection of Matt Christopher, prolific author of thin, simple
sports novels. But it was clear that Barnes & Noble had
given up on teenage boys

He goes on to discuss a meeting with his editor and how his editor discussed an idea call "regendering" where authors are encouraged to consider changing the gender of their main character from male to female. So here is a thought--has chick literature gone to far? Do we have too many novels for young females because that is what sells? Is this why, in the classroom, I have to steer boys away from Gary Paulsen, yet don't have many other options for them to consider that they would be interested in? This is an area I must continue to explore!