Buddha Boy

Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: BUDDHA BOY
Review: "That's right: You can't play tug of war with someone who refuses to hold the other end of the rope."

That's how a friend of mine characterized what I was excitedly telling her about BUDDHA BOY, the superb new book by Kathe Koja. It was a foggy early morning on campus--I'd just come from voting--and I was explaining how, in contrast to the many stories where the bullies/jocks/student "leaders" had the satisfaction of seeing their victims beaten down and acting victimized, here you had a new, "strange" kid (Jinsen) who won't give them that satisfaction. There's a point in the story where one of the school's predators (part of the group who'd jumped Jinsen/"Buddha Boy" the day before) corners the story's narrator, Justin, and complains:

" ' Why do you hang out with him? Why do you stick up for him? The kid's a freak, he doesn't even belong here.' I opened my mouth, but he wasn't done; in a weird way it was like he wasn't even talking to me, but to Jinsen somehow through me, like I was a translator, a gateway. 'He wears freak clothes, he acts like a freak, he sure talks like a freak--'
" ' Well, ignore him,' my voice a little better, a little stronger, but not much. 'Just, just pretend he's not--'
" ' Ignore him! How can you ignore him? You know what he said to me yesterday? when he, when we were-- He said, "If it makes you happy." That's what he said. "Go on, if it makes you happy." What the hell is that supposed to mean?' Yelling now, but again not at me: it was as if he were arguing with Jinsen, arguing with himself, his face getting redder and redder and 'You tell him,' poking me in the chest, big fat hot-dog finger, 'tell him to stay the hell away from me. Just tell him that.' "

As the story begins, Justin tells us that:

"Our little group--we'd been buddies since middle school, Jakob and Megan and me--was mostly somewhere in the middle, never invited to the big-deal parties but not exiled to the outer limits, either. It's not a bad place to be, the middle: it's comfortable, it's easy, and it's safe. And I'd probably still be there if it wasn't for Jinsen."

A big part of Justin is clearly reluctant to leave that safe place. Frequently, we find him mumbling to himself that he's not Jinsen's friend--they just hang out together sometimes. Even Justin's friends think that he is nuts. But Justin is truly intrigued and impressed by the boy with the bald head, beatific smile, and incredible artistic ability:

"I was still watching Jinsen: calm gaze and careful hands, no wasted motion, working on his print as if it were any day, as if yesterday's bad news or the great news today were all just...part of everything, and he was just taking everything as it came, how could he do that? How could he keep on doing that? Balls? Luck? Karma?"

And what is Justin's role when Jinsen consistently takes it all and smiles? Justin, who has become more and more furious about what he sees happening, muses:

"In history, in a movie, in a book, you can always tell who the heroes are: they're the ones rushing into a burning building, giving crucial testimony in the courtroom, refusing to step to the back of the bus. They're the ones who act the way you hope you would, if the moment came to you.
"But the movies and the history books never tell you how they felt, those heroes, if they were angry or uncertain or afraid, if they had to think a long time before they did the right thing, if they even knew what the right thing was or just made a headlong guess, just leaped and hoped they landed instead of falling. They never tell you what it's like to stand on the brink, wishing you were somewhere--or someone--else, wishing the choice had never come your way and you could just go back to your safe, ordinary, everyday life. "Because you know what else the books never say? Nobody, hero or not, really wants to rush into a fire. Because fire burns."

This compelling tale of Justin's transformation firmly establishes Kathe Koja as a young adult novelist. Hopefully we won't have to play tug of war with the fans of her adult novels. ...

Rating:
Summary: Devoured it in one sitting.
Review: Great book--similar to Stargirl by Spinnelli in that it portrays an individualistic teen who flaunts the established social behaviors. Would be great for discussion!

Rating:
Summary: Devoured it in one sitting.
Review: Great book--similar to Stargirl by Spinnelli in that it portrays an individualistic teen who flaunts the established social behaviors. Would be great for discussion!

Rating:
Summary: Buddha Boy
Review: In the novel, Buddha Boy, Kathe Koja describes the life of two boys in high school. Justin had never been popular, but he has always had two great friends. Everyone had been talking about a weird new kid at school, but Justin hadn't seen him until lunch that same day. A boy came up to him, and asked him for money, and that's when he got his name Buddha Boy. Justin becomes friends with Buddha Boy and starts hanging around him. Buddha Boy gets invited to a very famous art school, and has to make a banner for the school to use to make sure he's ready for the challenge. The day of judging comes but things go terribly wrong. In the novel, Koja teaches that everyone's different, but you should still accept him or her. Find out what happens in Buddha Boy.

Rating:
Summary: An Experience in Loyalty and Acceptance
Review: Kathe Koja's book, Buddha Boy, focuses on a teenager's living nightmare. Nobody wants to be the school outcast, but Jinsen, the new kid, keeps his head held high even though he is the most picked on kid at school. However, his reluctant friend, Justin, struggles to maintain his anger and inner frustrations.

Loyalty, acceptance, decision making, and value struggles, are all tightly woven into this short 117 page book. Teenagers deal with these issues almost everyday. Jinsen and Justin are characters that teens can relate to. It is hard to get through highschool without feeling like the school outcast at least once. Nobody is cool all the time.

Jinsen never loses his temper; he does not lash out at the bullys who harass him on a daily basis. He just smiles and shrugs off the pain. As readers, we do not get a good look into his inner feelings. It is hard to imagine a person who never reacts to the pain he must feel from the tormenting that he is constantly subjected to. We see his strength, but it is also important to remember that emotionally strong people do let their emotions go from time to time. Justin, Jinsen's only friend, acts as a balance on this level. He does let his emotions explode; he doesn't understand Jinsen's emotional control. Without Justin's reactions to the social injustices, the story would not be as convincing to a young reader.

Rating:
Summary: Koja makes the Best of the Year list. Again.
Review: Kathe Koja, Buddha Boy (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2003)

I got to the point about eight years ago where I finally gave in to the temptation to predict an author. After the back-to-back triumphs that were Skin and Strange Angels, I figured that from here on out, anything Kathe Koja would release would be brilliant, and every book she released would find its way onto my top ten for whatever year in which I read it.

Then she started writing kidlit. I approached Straydog with some trepidation, but it not only made last year's best-of list, it topped it. So I had no such qualms hunting down her second piece of young adult fiction, Buddha Boy. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised, at least not by the quality.

Justin is an Everyman in an Everyman's high school; if you went to high school in America, you'll probably recognize all the archetypes to be found here. The school gets a new student, Jinsen. To call Jinsen, an aspiring Zen monk, different would be the understatement of the year. And we all know what happens to different kids in high school.

Justin, however, assigned to a class project with Jinsen, discovers that Jinsen is one of the finest artists Justin has ever come across, and thus grudgingly befriends the kid the others at school call Buddha Boy. From all this springs this small, delicate tale.

Koja's writing is, as usual, short and to the point. Even the slowest reader will probably get through Buddha Boy in no more than a couple of days. Most people will be able to find someone here to identify with (though many won't like what they see in the book's looking-glass), and the story is compelling enough to draw the reader through, perhaps in a single gulp. Nothing surprising there.

What is surprising, perhaps, is the language she chooses. It seems, especially in comparison with Straydog, that Koja's language is slipping back towards that she used in her adult novels. Not that she talked down to the audience in Straydog or that she elevates them here; it's a slight difference in tone, a barren quality from Skin and Strange Angels that was (despite the painfulness of Straydog's subject matter) absent from the previous book.

She's got a new one coming out any day now, The Blue Mirror. I can't wait. **** ½

Rating:
Summary: Buddha Boy
Review: There are coming-of-age books that deal with some things that are simple -- like love and sex. And then there are those that handle the harder topics - such as fighting cliques, going against the social order, or confronting inertia. This book is in the latter category, and is more about Justin, than about Jinsen (the Buddha Boy). Jinsen is harrassed daily by his classmates. This is half high school tale and half mystery, as new facets of the chracters are revealed in each chapter. There is also a dollop of karmic buddhism to give the story some uniqueness. The author has created a realistic story of Jinsen, a teenager who decides to live as a monk with a shaved head, calming smile, new name, and begging bowl. Justin, who is assigned to an Econ class project with Jinsen, must then face guilt by association, and decide what choices to make when confronting his parents, teachers, class leaders, bullies, drama club members, and friends. What sounds like a canned stereotypical story turns out to have much deeper nuances.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for all ages... or at least tweens
Review: There are coming-of-age books that deal with some things that are simple -- like love and sex. And then there are those that handle the harder topics - such as fighting cliques, going against the social order, or confronting inertia. This book is in the latter category, and is more about Justin, than about Jinsen (the Buddha Boy). Jinsen is harrassed daily by his classmates. This is half high school tale and half mystery, as new facets of the chracters are revealed in each chapter. There is also a dollop of karmic buddhism to give the story some uniqueness. The author has created a realistic story of Jinsen, a teenager who decides to live as a monk with a shaved head, calming smile, new name, and begging bowl. Justin, who is assigned to an Econ class project with Jinsen, must then face guilt by association, and decide what choices to make when confronting his parents, teachers, class leaders, bullies, drama club members, and friends. What sounds like a canned stereotypical story turns out to have much deeper nuances.

Rating:
Summary: Buddha Buddy
Review: When a new artistically talented boy shows up at Rucher high, calling himself Jinsen instead of his real name, and acting "strange", sophomore classmate Justin doesn't understand why, but he also doesn't know why Jinsen tolerates the continual harassment by the other students without complaint. More of a portrayal of friendship than of Buddhism, Buddha Boy shows how the practice of religious tenets can turn a person's life around. Koja manages to do this in a non-preachy way, noting through Justin's observations that "all religions are about the same thing" but that religion "doesn't seem to make any difference" in making people better or changing the way they act. Several chapters begin with Justin's comments on karma or other issues and then flash back to the events that formed them. Justin's growing concern about the way his classmates treat his friend, and how the school officials ignore it to serve their own interests, trigger actions that result in "karma" for both of them.

Rating:
Summary: Buddha Buddy
Review: When a new artistically talented boy shows up at Rucher high, calling himself Jinsen instead of his real name, and acting strange, sophomore classmate Justin doesn't understand why, but he also doesn't know why Jinsen tolerates the continual harassment by the other students without complaint. More of a portrayal of friendship than of Buddhism, Buddha Boy shows how the practice of religious tenets can turn a person's life around. Koja manages to do this in a non-preachy way, noting through Justin's observations that all religions are about the same thing but that religion doesn't seem to make any difference in making people better or changing the way they act. Several chapters begin with Justin's comments on karma or other issues and then flash back to the events that formed them. Justin's growing concern about the way his classmates treat his friend, and how the school officials ignore it to serve their own interests, trigger actions that result in karma for both of them.