Cathy Young
Prejudice. Intolerance. Hate. Violence. High school never has been all fun and games, but its uglier edge seems to be growing ever more sharp. The consequences of difference can become deadly when a teenager's rage over being misunderstood or rejected explodes in violence. Littleton. Springfield. Jonesboro. With these school tragedies fresh in our minds,
Breaking Rank , a new novel by Kristen D. Randle, will cause teens to think about where prejudice can lead them.
Breaking Rank takes a fresh look at the dynamics inside and between teen social cliques. Even better, Randle infuses a tickle of love in this challenging story of social class and alienation at a midwestern high school. Imagine, if you will, a tablespoon of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and a splash of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet tossed in a bowl of modern circumstance, and you'll catch a whiff of what Randle has cooked up. This, however, only begins to describe Breaking Rank .
It's obvious from the outset that Casey Willardson is lucky. She's smart, down-to-earth, good in school, and generous with her friends. Casey and her parents worry, though, when her principal asks if she'll tutor another student; this student isn't just any student. Thomas Fairbairn is a member of the Clan, a secretive band of young men who wear dark clothes, isolate themselves from others, and even refuse to participate in school. So entrenched is the Clan in the community that the high school has its own special education program for the young men. There, they can be as aloof and as uncooperative as they want to be, without disturbing the rest of the students in the school.
Thomas Fairbairn may wear black clothes and live by the Clan's code of honor (they don't steal or hurt others but keep to themselves and learn respectable trades passed down to them by older members), but he wants more in his life than what the Clan can offer. On the sly, he takes a few achievement tests and dazzles the school administrators with his scores. Casey's principal hatches a plan: If Thomas can be matriculated into honors courses, for which the tests clearly reveal he has the intelligence, the principal may be able to subvert the Clan's power over the school. If just one Clan member can break free, maybe other members will realize that they have options, too.
The principal's plan is very risky. What will the rest of the Clan members do when they find out that Thomas has broken rank? Will the other students accept Thomas into their classes and lives? After being isolated in the folds of the Clan for so long, Thomas will need not only a tutor but someone to help him adjust to normal social life. Ever ready to help others, Casey accepts her principal's challenge to tutor Thomas.
If only blind optimism were all that either Casey or Thomas needed to make this crazy experiment succeed! Their study relationship falters from misunderstandings and proud posturing. Even more destructive are the intrusive reactions of protective Clan members and school jocks when it begins to sink in that Casey and Thomas are challenging the status quo, studying together, even beginning a fragile friendship. As the sparks fly, other sparks are kindled between the two. Brought together by strange circumstances, each of them needs to trust the other as their worlds collide, or neither of them will survive.
Is this a story about how gangs fit into a high school social scene? Yes and no. What makes Breaking Rank so compelling and important is that Randle allows her characters to explore the very edges of their subcultures. Like Casey, many readers will be surprised to discover that both the jocks in her school and the members of the Clan seek similar goals in their rules and associations. Also, along with Casey, readers will learn how snap judgements close off opportunity. Somehow, Randle manages to pack all of this in without letting her tone become moralistic. Breaking Rank is powerful and relevant.
--Cathy Young
Kitty Flynn
In Randle's intriguing coming-of-age novel, the Clan, a nonconformist group of young, male "social iconoclasts," stands apart, "like an odd, fervent religion," and few people in seventeen-year-old Casey's town willingly interact with its silent, stony-faced members. The uneasy social balance that has existed in the community is thrown off when Clan member Thomas, a.k.a. Baby, is placed in the honors program at school, and Casey agrees to tutor him and help smooth his transition to the mainstream. Cautiously they forge a "working relationship" in spite of their differences and strong disapproval from the autodidactic Clan (who look down upon the traditional educational system and on fraternization with outsiders) and from Casey's peers and family (who worry about her safety). Telling the story from both Baby's and Casey's point of view, Randle draws us in through her realistic portrayal of the pressures the two feel from within and without, as well as the attraction they begin to feel toward each other. The plot occasionally bogs down in details, but these two likable, well-developed characters and the dangerous conflict that surrounds them will keep readers engaged. This is a sensi-tively told story that resonates with loss and, in the end, hope. -- Horn Book Magazine
Publishers Weekly
- Publisher's Weekly
For 12 years, the black-clad members of "the Clan" have slunk through school, driving teachers crazy by calmly refusing to work or to speak to anyone. But one day Thomas, aka "Baby" to his Clan fellows, clandestinely takes a placement test and is identified as gifted. Over her parents' objections, Casey, a good student friendly with the jock/cheerleader set, responds to the guidance counselor's request for her help and becomes Baby's after-school tutor. At first deeply mistrustful of each other, Baby and Casey gradually find a common bond and, unsurprisingly, a powerful mutual attraction. Their relationship sets in motion a chain of events that causes each of them to reexamine who they are, where they stand in their social milieus and how they will respond to their peers' expectations. The characterizations and group dynamics are compelling, the romance believable and the plot gripping as events come to a violent crescendo. Randle (The Only Alien on the Planet) is adept at conveying ingrained prejudices as well as the frustration and alienation that lead some youths to forsake the "straight" world for a more friendly and accepting one of their own making. A vivid, resonant contemporary tale. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly
This novel challenges stereotypes and stigmas when an unprecedented friendship develops between two teens of rival high school groups. "Randle is adept at conveying ingrained prejudices as well as the frustration and alienation that leads some youths to forsake the `straight' world for a more friendly and accepting one of their own making," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
KLIATT
To quote KLIATT's May 1999 review of the hardcover edition: Thomas, known as Baby, is a member of the Clan, a group of young men who dress in black, keep to themselves, and refuse to speak to others or to participate in school. The Clan is definitely seen as strange in their small northeastern town, and somewhat threatening, too. But the high school principal convinces Baby to take a test that shows how smart he is, and then convinces 17-year-old Casey to tutor him, though her parents and friends worry about her safety. Their relationship ends up changing both their lives as they gradually get to know each other, become friends, and then realize that they're attracted to each other. Meanwhile, Baby is treated with hostility by the Clan, which believes in learning by apprenticeship rather than study in school, and by others at the high school, for his relationship with Casey. Events come to a violent head as the jocks confront the Clan in a showdown while both Baby and Casey struggle with deciding what's important to them. Told from both Casey's and Baby's points of view, this novel reminds me a bit of The Outsiders. The pressures on both characters, both internal and external, are realistically depicted, and readers will care about these sensitive and determined teens. It's an involving coming-of-age story with appeal to both genders. Category: Paperback Fiction. KLIATT Codes: S—Recommended for senior high school students. 1999, HarperTempest, 262p., $6.95. Ages 16 to 18. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; KLIATT SOURCE: KLIATT, March 2002 (Vol. 36, No. 2)
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-Thomas Fairbairn is Clan: one of a group of young men who dress in black, don't talk to outsiders, or participate in school. Flaunting Clan rules, Thomas seeks knowledge outside of his group and transfers into the honors program. Casey Willardson, an A student, is enlisted as his tutor and steps out of the security of her suburban in-crowd to help him. Both teens become renegades in the eyes of their peers; group conflict erupts as their friendship grows beyond books. Unfortunately, females are only seen as sex objects in the all-male Clan and Thomas's failure to consummate his relationship with Casey leads in part to his expulsion from the group. Casey's own beliefs are strained as Thomas challenges society and learns the costs of conformity. Reminiscent of The Outsiders and West Side Story, Randle's novel is compelling reading. Romance, gang in-fighting, and high school classroom and social scenes are realistically detailed. Predictably, the final fight between jocks and Clan occurs under the freeway bridge. Nevertheless, powerful writing and a suspenseful, action-driven story will grab teen readers.-Gail Richmond, San Diego Unified Schools, CA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
In a Romeo and Juliet story with a new twist and a happier ending, Randle compassionately explores the duel feelings of exhilaration and anguish that comes from disassociating one's self from an all-encompassing, powerful peer group. Casey, a smart, popular Everygirl, is asked if she'll tutor intensely handsome, super-smart Thomas, nicknamed Baby; he's a member of the Clan, an enigmatic group of teenage boys who are routinely slotted into remedial classes because they refuse to do schoolwork or interact with teachers and peers. Although afraid to violate Clan rules and especially to upset his loving but controlling Clan leader brother, Baby agrees to work with Casey and enter his school's gifted program. As Baby and Casey journey from mutual hostility to intrigue, like, and trust, romance blooms. This leads to trouble, since neither of their peer groups—equally poisoned by an us-versus-them mentality—are comfortable with them as a couple. The end of this fast-paced drama hardly holds up; too much is happening and the integrity of some characterization is sacrificed to the plot. Nevertheless, Randle has written an enthralling story that leaves readers with much to contemplate. (Fiction. 12-14)
