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Overview
How far would you go to fit in?
Paul is new to Gate, a school whose rich students make life miserable for anyone not like them. And Paul is definitely not like them. Then, something incredible happens. Charlie Good, a star student and athlete, invites Paul to join his elite inner circle. All Charlie wants is a few things in return—small things that Paul does willingly. Until one day Charlie wants something big—really big.
Now Paul has to decide how far he'll go to be one of the gang.
The electrifying follow-up to Alex Flinn's critically acclaimed debut novel, Breathing Underwater, Breaking Point is a tale of school violence that explores why and how a good kid can go 'bad'.
Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under the spell of a charismatic boy who may be using him.
Synopsis
How far would you go to fit in?
Paul is new to Gate, a school whose rich students make life miserable for anyone not like them. And Paul is definitely not like them. Then, something incredible happens. Charlie Good, a star student and athlete, invites Paul to join his elite inner circle. All Charlie wants is a few things in return - small things that Paul does willingly. Until one day Charlie wants something big - really big.
Now Paul has to decide how far he′ll go to be one of the gang.
The electrifying follow-up to Alex Flinn′s critically acclaimed debut novel, Breathing Underwater, Breaking Point is a tale of school violence that explores why and how a good kid can go ′bad′.
Ages 12+
School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up. Being the new kid in school is always difficult, but it is especially hard for a scholarship student now in an exclusive Christian school where his divorced mother is the secretary. From the first day, Paul Richmond has problems with the charismatic leader of the in crowd, Charlie Goode. As the year progresses, he is tormented and verbally abused, but finds himself caught up in Charlie's group, which "courts" him in the evenings. A couple of other students try to warn him about his new friends, but outsider Paul is much too happy about being included to heed their warnings. The plot intensifies when Paul helps Charlie change grades on the school computers and set a bomb in one of the classrooms. No one is hurt, but Paul discovers that he has been set up as the scapegoat, and he recounts the events that lead to his arrest and imprisonment. In this intense story of peer pressure and the need to be accepted, the characters are realistically drawn and reflect the nature of high school relationships. Flinn states in her author's note that she wrote about one young man who reached his breaking point and that she has tried to understand what makes teens feel so angry, fearful, and isolated that they commit acts of violence. She has succeeded in her goal. Despite his actions, Paul comes across as a likable, although misguided, teen in a book that is well worth reading.
Editorials
Kimberly L. Paone
Homeschooled by his mother since second grade and recently abandoned by his father, fifteen-year-old Paul must learn to adjust to his new life. This adjustment includes living in a small, low-rent apartment and attending the prestigious Gate-Brickell Christian School, where his mother has just taken a job. Paul's lack of a trust fund gets him shunned by his snobby, spoiled classmates, and he is subjected to cruel practical jokes until Charlie Good, the golden-boy tennis star at Gate, befriends him. Charlie first tests Paul's loyalty by challenging him to destroy mailboxes, then by persuading him to drink and steal, and finally by convincing him to use his mother's office key and his computer expertise to change one of Charlie's grades. Paul continues to follow Charlie's lead while simultaneously being pulled into a dangerous, complicated web of lies and bomb-making Internet sites.Paul's struggle with his situation at home, his turmoil at school, and the painful realization that his relationship with Charlie is not as it seems, help to paint him in a sympathetic light, but Paul ultimately must pay a high price for acceptance and popularity. Not since Cormier's The Chocolate War have characters been drawn to be so brilliantly twisted. Flinn's flair for creating disturbing characters in completely realistic situation is uncanny and leaves the reader thinking of Columbine and other school violence incidents whose perpetrators could have been quite similar to Charlie and Paul. This timely, engaging book is certain to grab the interest of teens. 4Q, 4P, J, S.
—Voices of Youth Advocates
From The Critics
Homeschooled by his mother since second grade and recently abandoned by his father, fifteen-year-old Paul must learn to adjust to his new life. This adjustment includes living in a small, low-rent apartment and attending the prestigious Gate-Brickell Christian School, where his mother has just taken a job. Paul's lack of a trust fund gets him shunned by his snobby, spoiled classmates, and he is subjected to cruel practical jokes until Charlie Good, the golden-boy tennis star at Gate, befriends him. Charlie first tests Paul's loyalty by challenging him to destroy mailboxes, then by persuading him to drink and steal, and finally by convincing him to use his mother's office key and his computer expertise to change one of Charlie's grades. Paul continues to follow Charlie's lead while simultaneously being pulled into a dangerous, complicated web of lies and bomb-making Internet sites.Paul's struggle with his situation at home, his turmoil at school, and the painful realization that his relationship with Charlie is not as it seems, help to paint him in a sympathetic light, but Paul ultimately must pay a high price for acceptance and popularity. Not since Cormier's The Chocolate War have characters been drawn to be so brilliantly twisted. Flinn's flair for creating disturbing characters in completely realistic situation is uncanny and leaves the reader thinking of Columbine and other school violence incidents whose perpetrators could have been quite similar to Charlie and Paul. This timely, engaging book is certain to grab the interest of teens.
—Kimberly L. Paone
School Library Journal
Grade 7 Up. Being the new kid in school is always difficult, but it is especially hard for a scholarship student now in an exclusive Christian school where his divorced mother is the secretary. From the first day, Paul Richmond has problems with the charismatic leader of the in crowd, Charlie Goode. As the year progresses, he is tormented and verbally abused, but finds himself caught up in Charlie's group, which "courts" him in the evenings. A couple of other students try to warn him about his new friends, but outsider Paul is much too happy about being included to heed their warnings. The plot intensifies when Paul helps Charlie change grades on the school computers and set a bomb in one of the classrooms. No one is hurt, but Paul discovers that he has been set up as the scapegoat, and he recounts the events that lead to his arrest and imprisonment. In this intense story of peer pressure and the need to be accepted, the characters are realistically drawn and reflect the nature of high school relationships. Flinn states in her author's note that she wrote about one young man who reached his breaking point and that she has tried to understand what makes teens feel so angry, fearful, and isolated that they commit acts of violence. She has succeeded in her goal. Despite his actions, Paul comes across as a likable, although misguided, teen in a book that is well worth reading.Publishers Weekly
Heavy-handed writing undermines Flinn's (Breathing Underwater) stated goal for her second novel, namely, to "stimulate discussion" among teens about why kids commit violent acts. When geeky ex-homeschooler Paul Richmond enrolls as a sophomore at an exclusive Miami private school, he is immediately targeted for harassment. Living in a shabby apartment with his needy, newly divorced mother (her job in the school office lowers Paul's tuition), Paul would feel miserable even if the jocks weren't calling him "faggot" and trashing his locker. Then popular Charlie Good suddenly befriends him outside of school, that is and Paul seems willing to do anything to stay in favor. First Paul vandalizes mailboxes, then he hacks into the school computer system to change Charlie's transcript. Charlie's hold on Paul intensifies until he persuades Paul to plant a bomb in the school. Characterizations are stock, and no one, particularly not the all-powerful Charlie, seems convincing. The boys' reasons for wanting to blow up the school remain murky, and many of Flinn's devices, like the school sermons that parallel the plot, are contrived. For a more developed treatment of similar themes, readers may appreciate Gail Giles's Shattering Glass, reviewed Feb. 11. Ages 13-up. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.KLIATT
To quote from the review of the hardcover edition in KLIATT, May 2002: Paul knows from the start that he won't fit in at his new high school, a ritzy Christian academy in Miami. He's there because his lonely, depressed, clingy mother has taken a job working there, hoping for a new start in a new town, not because he's one of the rich kids who effortlessly belong. Charlie is one of those kids, a "golden boy" who excels at tennis and rules a social crowd, and Paul longs to belong to his group. When Charlie admires Paul's computer skills and starts to befriend him, Paul is thrilled, though he is warned that Charlie is just using him. Soon, Charlie has Paul pulling pranks, drinking, hacking into the school's computer system to change Charlie's grades—and plotting with him to bomb the school. Flinn, the author of last year's acclaimed YA novel Breathing Underwater, told from the point of view of an abusive boyfriend, again tackles a difficult subject, school violence, from the viewpoint of an instigator, albeit one who has been both victimized and manipulated. The relationship between sad, lonely Paul and scheming, slick Charlie is at the core of this book, and Flinn makes it ring true. The details of how misfits are picked on and how the pranks and violence escalate are all too believable. (I found the information on computers less convincing; most teens I know spend much of their computer time instant messaging and downloading music, neither of which Flinn mentions, so the details of what the boys do online seem oddly outdated.) Like Todd Strasser's Give a Boy a Gun, this inside look at bullying and school violence is disturbing and compelling. Some obscenities. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommendedfor junior and senior high school students. 2002, HarperCollins, Tempest, 240p.,— Paula Rohrlick
VOYA
Homeschooled by his mother since second grade and recently abandoned by his father, fifteen-year-old Paul must learn to adjust to his new life. This adjustment includes living in a small, low-rent apartment and attending the prestigious Gate-Brickell Christian School, where his mother has just taken a job. Paul's lack of a trust fund gets him shunned by his snobby, spoiled classmates, and he is subjected to cruel practical jokes until Charlie Good, the golden-boy tennis star at Gate, befriends him. Charlie first tests Paul's loyalty by challenging him to destroy mailboxes, then by persuading him to drink and steal, and finally by convincing him to use his mother's office key and his computer expertise to change one of Charlie's grades. Paul continues to follow Charlie's lead while simultaneously being pulled into a dangerous, complicated web of lies and bomb-making Internet sites. Paul's struggle with his situation at home, his turmoil at school, and the painful realization that his relationship with Charlie is not as it seems, help to paint him in a sympathetic light, but Paul ultimately must pay a high price for acceptance and popularity. Not since Cormier's The Chocolate War have characters been drawn to be so brilliantly twisted. Flinn's flair for creating disturbing characters in completely realistic situations is uncanny and leaves the reader thinking of Columbine and other school violence incidents whose perpetrators could have been quite similar to Charlie and Paul. This timely, engaging book is certain to grab the interest of teens. 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; SeniorHigh, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2002, HarperCollins, 224p, PaoneChildren's Literature
Paul is a fifteen-year-old, self-proclaimed loser. His father has fled with his pregnant secretary, and his mother literally pulls the hair out of her head when anxious, seemingly all the time. Home-schooled until his mother is forced to find work, Paul feels alone and unable to fit in with the posh and snobby students of the elite prep school he now attends. Paul quickly falls prey to several pranks and jokes made at his expense that are facilitated by Charlie Good, the most popular boy in school. Paul is especially surprised, then, when Charlie and his cronies show up at his bedroom door one night and invite him to come along as they destroy mailboxes and drink the liquor raided from Mr. and Mrs. Good's stash. He accepts and is no longer a victim at school. Over time, Charlie draws Paul further into his confidence, telling him the supposed truth about his parents, his friends, and his peers. Charlie is angry that he, as a teen with a particularly domineering father, lacks full control over his own life. To show that he does indeed possess power over himself (and others), Charlie convinces Paul to plant a bomb in a school classroom. Although the bomb is discovered before it detonates, Paul ultimately confesses his guilt to the administration. Charlie denies all and gets off scot-free, while Paul spends two years in juvenile detention and has much time to ponder the error of his past choices. Told from the point of view of Paul, we witness the frustration and euphoria that this young man experiences as he tries to find his place. Flinn does an impressive job of creating a character that we both understand and cannot comprehend. Expressive language, psychological tension, and believablecharacters make this a highly recommended novel. 2002, HarperTempest, Ages 14 to 18.—Wendy Glenn, Ph.D.