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Book
set in fictional LA
American Press (Lake Charles, LA), Sunday, April 13, 2003
by Takisha Knight
Lowell
Bergeron's "The New Kid" is a revenge-tainted tale
about the fall fo three of high school bullies.
Bergeron,
a Lake Charles native, calculates the setting's atmosphere
to the very percentage of humidity and creates a typical small
town in Southwest Louisiana.
The "New
Kid" is set around 1992 at the fictional Huey P. Long
High School in Shelberg, where an unsolved mystery is waiting
to be uncovered.
Jack LeBeau's senior year has arrived, and he's finally seeing
the world a little differently. The only thing that hasn't
changed is the The Stooges' reign of terror.
Each year,
Butch, Red and Jet establish their authority by tormenting
any student who crosses their paths.
During
his senior year, Jack gets his wish to be rid of the notorious
Stooges once and for all. He couldn't have guessed that the
answer to his prayers would be a scrawny, pale kid.
Before
the unlikely Hogan Palmer mysteriously showed up to take the
Stooges on, Jack was the only one with half the never to stand
up to the bullies.
Now as
an adult, he is writing a book about the events of his haunting
senior year when one kid changed the rules and his life.
Before
Bergeron wrote "The New Kid," his first novel, he
published two short stories, "The Cabin" and "The
Storm." Similarly to those stories, "The New Kid"
has an abrupt, ironic ending, a classic short story touch.
In his
first printing of the "The New Kid," Bergeron falls
decades behind in popular slang and expressions. Some teens
can only gues what it means to "toe the line," and
"the willies" aren't as common as they were in their
parents's day.
Nevertheless,
"The New Kid" is relevant for today's young society
of readers.
Bergeron
addresses the dangers of school violence, a ranking subject
to teens today. He chanllenges the younger reader to think
about the last situation that involved a bully, how it was
handled and should be handled the next time.
Though
"The New Kid" is written on an intermediate level,
it contains mild adult language and violence.
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