Behaving Bradley

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Poor Brad! The hapless Winnipeg 11th-grader is laboring under the delusion that rewriting the Roblin Memorial High School Code of Conduct will actually cause students and faculty to treat one another-and him especially-with respect. Instead, he learns two classic lessons: the more things change, the more they stay the same; and appearances can be deceiving. Nodelman's (The Same Place but Different) hyperbolic novel teems with wicked caricatures of familiar targets: "fat-assed phys ed teachers... going on about the joys of physical activity which they selflessly restrain themselves from actually experiencing"; a platitude-spouting Language Arts teacher who declaims, "Poetry is life! The essence of living!"; a faculty adviser who leers at a comely student. There's not a single sympathetic adult in irrepressible Brad's world, and his fellow students aren't much better. Unfortunately, the lampooning is not enough to sustain a full-length novel, and the chief plot line, about an anonymous enemy who wants Brad to drop his Code of Conduct project, isn't all that compelling. There are a lot of witty moments, just not much holding them together. Ages 12-up. (July)

Children's Literature - Catherine Petrini

Behaving Bradley is one of those rare YA books that adults as well as teens will love. Bradley is Brad Gold, a high school junior who thinks of himself as an ordinary guy. He acts dorky around girls. He envies guys who are tall and athletic. He's sure his language arts teacher came from another planet. And he's having a permanent bad-hair day. Brad's main ambition is to get through high school without calling attention to himself-until the principal announces a new Code of Conduct for students. The Code is condescending and disrespectful to teens and says nothing about how parents and teachers should behave. Worst of all, it outlaws baseball caps like the one Brad wears to cover his geeky hair. To his surprise, Brad finds himself leading a crusade to replace the proposed Code with a student-written version that emphasizes mutual respect. His activism touches off a chain of events that will keep readers laughing out loud. Author Perry Nodelman's insights into high school life are right on target. Roblin High School is peopled with a cast of hilarious but believable characters. At the center of it all is Brad, a wise and funny narrator you can't help but root for.

VOYA - Maura Bresnahan

Eleventh grader Bradley Gold quickly learns that Roblin Memorial High School is a microcosm of the bureaucracy and politics of the real world when he tries to save himself and fellow students from a rigidly written Code of Conduct. When an apathetic student body seems willing to accept the code, Brad cannot remain silently on the sidelines. Nodelman creates a hilarious narrator in Brad, whose outlook on life is decidedly pessimistic. Brad sees many drawbacks in his life. He is too short; his hair is a constant worry; he is a victim of two bullies (girls, at that); he has a fear of swimming, a skill required for graduation; his relationship with his father is rapidly deteriorating; and when he becomes involved in this crusade he finds himself the target of anonymous threats. Brad is smart enough to realize that his approach to a revision of the code will not work if he alienates the other major players: the school council, administration, and fellow students. Brad and his small gang of friends use their wiles to have their "mutual respect" ideal incorporated into the code. By the end of the novel Brad has learned a great deal about life but finds himself with even more questions. This first person account of life in a 1990s high school is dead-on accurate. The usual suspects are brought vividly to life through Brad's descriptions of the popular crowd, the jocks, the bullies, the victims, the academic overachievers, the administration, and the misfits. Brad pulls no punches in his direct approach to what he experienced at Roblin. His vocabulary and interests are those of a typical teen, so mild expletives and sexual references (many made with self-deprecating humor) abound. Readers of Avi's Nothing But the Truth (Orchard, 1991/VOYA February 1992) will appreciate Brad's attempts to earn "mutual respect." VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

School Library Journal

Eleventh-grader Brad Gold is the unlikely hero of Nodelman's irreverent look at life at Roblin Memorial High. When the local school board decrees that a new Code of Conduct be developed, several students are upset because the administration has written one and is railroading its acceptance. An unwilling and unenthusiastic Brad finds himself fighting for student input in the decision-making process. Despite the initial lack of interest and support by fellow students, resentment by the principal and teachers, and threats and beatings by the school bullies, he continues his quixotic quest. Add elements of romance as he tries to protect his kickboxing-champion love interest, of irony as he is thrown out of swimming class for not being able to swim, and of satire with three history teachers whose looks and words are interchangeable for a humorous portrait of high school life. While sometimes rather long-winded, this Canadian novel is very appealing. The interaction between the characters, as well as the situational and verbal humor, provides comic insight into the lighter side of high school that one might find in any hallway, cafeteria, or locker room. In spite of its tongue-in-cheek attitude, most of the situations and characters are realistically drawn, and a serious tone lies just underneath the caricaturelike atmosphere. Brad discovers, despite his success in writing and winning an exemplary Code of Conduct, that nothing really changes around the school. But since there will always be those who tilt at windmills, readers are left with a sense of satisfaction. Janet Hilbun, Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX

Kirkus Reviews

Self-pitying, Holden Caulfield wannabe Bradley Gold narrates Nodelman's tale of much ado about nothing. When Roblin Memorial High decides to draft a Code of Conduct for the students, the last thing 11th grader Bradley wants is to be involved. But his best friend, Coll Anderson, talks him into taking an interest and before he knows it, Brad starts a crusade to revise the document to include a code for teachers as well. That doesn't come easily: Student bullies, teachers, and parents stand in Brad's way before he triumphs. If readers don't tire of the one-note plot, they will quickly grow impatient with Bradley's tirades; his rambling, cynical observations don't make him particularly likable or sympathetic. Brad's skewering of adults—who are all cruel, deviant, or imbecilic—and classmates, whom he defines by stereotypes and quirks, substitutes for a storyline. In Brad's unrealistic world, he seems to count himself as the only one with any redeeming qualities—no wonder he's miserable.