You Don't Know Me

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK!
Review: This is a book about a 14 year old boy named john who has a miserable life. Or as he calls it, a life that is not a life. He thinks that he has no friends, and that nobody likes him or cares about him in the slightest bit - not even his mother. He thinks that she doesn't know him at all, but he doesn't understand how that could be, since every mother knows her son. She knows who he is, but doesn't really know him, never looked deep enough to see. He is spilling his heart out to her the entire book, but has no courage to say it out loud. He not only has the troubles that every teenage boy has to deal with (school, homework, girls...) but he also has a special problem of his own - His mothers boyfriend. His mother's boyfriend (whom he names "the man who is not my father") verbally and physically abuses him. John doesn't tell his mother about this because he feels that she won't believe him, and that she prefers her boyfriend over him, once she has chosen to get married with her now fiancée without even consulting him. He has a meltdown at school when he decides to take his feelings out on everyone else. So he gets suspended from school. Of course, his soon to be father punishes him for it. His father treats him so badly while his mother is out of town, that he even considers committing suicide. But he thinks there must be a better way out. Finally, when the man who is not his father beats him so severely after he caught him sneaking out at night, John's music teacher (who already suspected something wrong going on in his family) catches the him and gives him up to the police, not only for child abuse, but also smuggling TV sets. John's mother breaks up with him, and clears everything up with John. So maybe she does know who he is after all.
I thought it was a great book. It was so realistic. You never really know who a person is and what he's going through. Nobody can read minds. It was a little confusing though, because John made up all these excuses and all these fake stories to make up for all the troubles in his life, that sometimes it was hard to tell what the truth was. I thought it was very funny at times, but brutal at others. What I really enjoyed was the narrator John's tone and voice. Despite all his troubles and his wretched life, he was a nice guy, fun to be with. He was very creative (thinking that his lockers talked and that his tuba was actually a frog pretending to be a tuba...) and thought such absurd things that it made me laugh. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Klass and Furious...
Review: Award winning young adult author David Klass has done it again, but this time inside an abused 14 year boy's head, John. His sophisticated style of writing created a very realistic depiction of how a troubled teen thinks and lives. Although Klass himself is aged, the story's scence and language is very modern, with overused teen phrases in the dialect. Even if one's not abuse, there's something about John that everyone can relate to. Throughout the book, he jumps through obsticles with a girl he obesses with, friends, and family. This book has all the elements of laughter, love, and sadness. Although Klass wrote it for young readers, I believe that anyone who picks it up will enjoy it. Athough the author sometimes goes through minor useless details, overall it's a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Get to know this incredible book
Review: This is a wonderfully unique book about the usual and unusual situations a young boy coping with his absent father, preoccupied mother, and evil soon-to-be stepfather must endure. Through a seemingly awful yet unexpectedly nurturing, high school year, readers, luckily, get to know this incredibly strong young man--even though we truly don't know him at the start.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read!
Review: OK, I know like half the reviews here start with "I couldn't put it down," but I really couldn't put this one down! It has so many high highs and low lows that you have to keep turning the pages to see what happens to your main character and narrator, 14 year old John. Tons of things happen to him within the span of only a few weeks. The only drawback is that sometimes Klass seems to be trying too hard to be funny and some of the descriptive passages can drag a bit, but don't let that stop you! Five big stars for this one.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD READIN
Review: In this amazing tail of a boy who lives in a his own strange world. If his tuba which he feels is a bullfrog dies or whether the girl he loves is not a girl he thinks she is a goat. He finds hiself trapped in the basement of the girl that is not a girls house as her father catches the cat he feels no one knows him. But in the end he finds out the one person who he thought did not know him knew him all along. He lives in a home which is not a home with a man that is not his father and is WHOPED for the simplist things. His friend who is not a friend Billy Beezer is arrested and while he is grounded he steals his date. In this amazing tail of what I look at this boy as searching his soul. The author of this wonderful book has his work cut out for him if he ever wants to top this book..I cant wait to read another one of his books. I incourage everyone to read this book!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing read....
Review: Every year I pick a book out to give to people for Christmas - and this is the one for this year. I was amazed at what I read and in fact - read it twice over the span of a day - just to let it sink in, to immerse myself in the images created and to figure out where it was going... and how it was getting there. There are so many angles to this story - the voices that he hears in his head - that sometimes escape with consequences no one can imagine. The man who would be his step father - who he believes his mother would choose over him - only to find out later - almost too late - that he didn't know his mom as well as he thought he did and that she just might know him - the real him - after all. The girl who admires him from a far and finally has the courage to ask him out - setting into motion the beginning of the end of the story. The band teacher who can see beyond what is there.. and in the end rescues the boy. And then the boy - who you can see fall apart only to reject ways of falling totally off the edge - to attempt to rescue himself and ultimately doing just that. It's a thought provoking book.. That I can't wait to share with my friends and family.

Rating:
Summary: In Reality
Review: I have had the privilege of reading this book. This book is like no other I have ever read. Actually I downright got so frustrated That I was about to throw this book down, never to flip its pages again. But I told myself I had to give it a chance. It was slow in some parts but you just had to bite down and hold on for the remainder of the ride.
When you did that, you were greatly rewarded with exciting suspense and drama. In the end..you'd be glad that you read "You don't know me" and you might come to realize that when you get to the last word, on the last page, on the final chapter you might have actually read a GREAT book that you will never forget. But please, don't take my word for it. This is a journey that you will have to take....

Rating:
Summary: Danger Zone-S.M.W.
Review: A descrption of Jimmy Duncan is that he is 6'3''.He lives in a small town in Graham,Minnasota. He is a famous basketball star in his town. Danger Zone is about a boy named Jimmy Duncan who is really popular in his school. He is 16 years old and lives with his mom and his two sisters. His father died when he was only 11. Jimmy is offered a chance to play basketball with the U.S's greatest. Jimmy rejects his offer at first. then his mother talks him into it and he goes.His teammates are all black. A teammate named Augustus Lee hates him. he calls jimmy a snowman. augustus shows jimmy the real part of L.A. the team is threatened by terrerist when they are in Rome,Italy. Jimmy must learn to be the best to compete.

Rating:
Summary: A great young adult book!
Review: This book is a wonderful read for young-adults and adults alike. The story of a young man with an abusive home life, trying to get through the teen years gets you attention through quirky mannerisms and thoughts of the main character. Manages very well to take a often addressed subject and present it in a totally unique and engaging manner.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book
Review: In David Klass's novel "You Don't Know Me," John, the main character, deals with all the things adolesence brings. He fights with his tuba, which isn't really a tuba at all, but a frog pretending to be a tuba, he has a crush on the beautiful, but dim Gloria (Glory Halleluia), and he masters the art of looking like he's paying attention in Mrs. Moonface's algebra class. However, John has troubles other than the normal teen-aged problems. He suffers constant physical abuse from his mother's boyfriend, "the man who is not his father." His mother doesn't know about the abuse, and John is afraid of what will happen to him if he tells his mother. What does happen to him left me breathless, crying, and laughing out loud. This is a fantastic book and a must-read.