Overview
There is a mysterious new student at Fitzgerald High, Jake Garret. He seems to have it all figured out. He looks like he just stepped off the cover of the J. Crew catalog, he is the best kicker the football team has ever had, and best of all, he hosts the party to go to every Friday night. All the guys want to be like him and all the girls want to date him, but Jake only has eyes for Didi, the girlfriend of alpha male and quarterback, Todd Buckley . As Jake's friend Rick gets to know him, he at first admires him, then starts to like him, but soon grows to fear for him as he learns Jake's dangerous secret. From beloved young adult author Gordon Korman, comes a new look at age-old themes about popularity, acceptance, and human nature.Rick becomes friends with the popular new boy, Jake Garrett, football player and host of superlative parties, and in the process discovers the true nature of his schoolmates and uncovers the mystery of Jake's past.
Synopsis
There is a mysterious new student at Fitzgerald High, Jake Garret. He seems to have it all figured out. He looks like he just stepped off the cover of the J. Crew catalog, he is the best kicker the football team has ever had, and best of all, he hosts the party to go to every Friday night. All the guys want to be like him and all the girls want to date him, but Jake only has eyes for Didi, the girlfriend of alpha male and quarterback, Todd Buckley . As Jake's friend Rick gets to know him, he at first admires him, then starts to like him, but soon grows to fear for him as he learns Jake's dangerous secret. From beloved young adult author Gordon Korman, comes a new look at age-old themes about popularity, acceptance, and human nature.
Publishers Weekly
Dedicated to "Jay and Daisy," Korman's (Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America) smart novel imagines The Great Gatsby with a cast of characters from Fitzgerald High. The Jay Gatsby figure is nerd turned bon vivant Jake Garrett; Daisy Buchanan has become Didi, the impossibly beautiful girl who is dating Todd Buckley (i.e., Tom Buchanan) despite his infidelities. Jake's weekly parties escalate in size and intensity, all part of his plan to get closer to Didi, whom he tutored in math several years before at a different school and has idealized ever since. In the midst of the banality and posturing of one keg party after another, two mature characters emerge: narrator Rick Paradis, who seems to not fit in with the crowd from the beginning, and the remarkable Dipsy, who starts off as comic relief but turns out to be perhaps the wisest person in the book: he alone understands that high school is, after all, just a few years, and that there is much more of life to come. Korman's prose hits its mark: a hung-over bunch of football players becomes "statuary in shoulder pads," the noise at a party rises "up to the point of pain" and the mournful hero is "unmade, not by fire, but by cold, smooth indifference." Unfortunately, a final chapter tacks on a happy ending and somewhat dulls the story's impact. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Dedicated to "Jay and Daisy," Korman's (Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America) smart novel imagines The Great Gatsby with a cast of characters from Fitzgerald High. The Jay Gatsby figure is nerd turned bon vivant Jake Garrett; Daisy Buchanan has become Didi, the impossibly beautiful girl who is dating Todd Buckley (i.e., Tom Buchanan) despite his infidelities. Jake's weekly parties escalate in size and intensity, all part of his plan to get closer to Didi, whom he tutored in math several years before at a different school and has idealized ever since. In the midst of the banality and posturing of one keg party after another, two mature characters emerge: narrator Rick Paradis, who seems to not fit in with the crowd from the beginning, and the remarkable Dipsy, who starts off as comic relief but turns out to be perhaps the wisest person in the book: he alone understands that high school is, after all, just a few years, and that there is much more of life to come. Korman's prose hits its mark: a hung-over bunch of football players becomes "statuary in shoulder pads," the noise at a party rises "up to the point of pain" and the mournful hero is "unmade, not by fire, but by cold, smooth indifference." Unfortunately, a final chapter tacks on a happy ending and somewhat dulls the story's impact. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.KLIATT
In this homage to The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald High has a new student, Jake Garrett, who throws the best parties and is considered the coolest guy in town. He dresses like "he'd just waltzed off the pages of the J. Crew catalog," he drives a Beamer, and he gets off football snaps "like a cruise missile." Every guy wants to be invited to his bashes, and every girl wants to be with him, but he only wants drop-dead gorgeous Didi, the girlfriend of Todd, the school quarterback. Narrator Rick tells the tragic tale as Jake manages to gets together with the girl of his dreams, though she refuses to stop seeing Todd. When violence erupts at a dangerously over-the-top final party, Jake takes the fall for Didi. In the end he is exposed as a lovelorn poseur, a former math geek and term paper writer for cash who has remade his image and plotted for years to win the prize of Didi, only to see it all slip away. Korman, author of Son of the Mob, No More Dead Dogs, and other books for young readers, is an accomplished writer who succeeds in making this plot work in an updated context. The dialog is snappy, and there is humor as well as heartbreak. YAs will recognize the common high school types here and eat up the details of the wild parties. Be sure to bring this to the attention of English teachers, who might enjoy using it in a unit on The Great Gatsby. KLIATT Codes: S-Recommended for senior high school students. 2003, Hyperion, 213p., Ages 15 to 18.— Paula Rohrlick
Children's Literature
Jake Garret, the mysterious newcomer to F. Scott Fitzgerald High School, turns the school and the town upside. Told through the eyes of Rick, a football playing teammate of the cooler than thou long snapper Jake, the tragedy behind the J. Crew studded stranger who throws the wildest Friday night parties in town is gradually revealed. While almost everyone falls in love with Jake, he only has eyes for Didi. Unfortunately, Didi's current beau is alpha male quarterback Todd Buckley. Jake, a former nerd and math tutor, developed an obsession for Didi and reinvents himself to win the superficial girl's heart. He goes beyond the voice of reason to win her over, and in the process, destroys his father's home. He even takes a bum wrap for her and is nearly sent to prison for assault. Korman uses first person narration laced with humor in relating this tragic tale of obsession. Korman is in touch with the real life concerns of modern teens as he writes about such topics as first loves, popularity, and self-esteem. The book warrants some caution for classroom use as teenage drinking, sex, and violence are explored. 2003, Hyperion, Ages 15 to 18.— Patricia Silverberg
VOYA
Korman's tribute to The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of a man who reinvents himself to attract the woman he loves, makes no apologies about matching the original almost scene for scene. The mysterious Jake Garrett (the parallel to Jay Gatsby), a new student at Fitzgerald High, and his Friday night parties are an overnight success. Beer, pizza, music, and a stream of interesting partygoers create the flame that attracts the in-crowd bevy of moths, including the king and queen of Fitzgerald High School, Todd Buckly and Didi Ray (Tom and Daisy Buchanan). Eventually, however, narrator Rick Paradis (Nick Carroway) discovers that the source of Jake's party funds is illicit, that he is a former nerd masquerading as a jock, and that his ulterior motive is to attract Didi, whom he has adored from a distance for years. When the in-crowd discovers Jake's masquerade (the incriminating evidence includes a chess championship trophy), they quickly betray him, and just as Gatsby took the blame for Daisy's accidental murder of Myrtle Wilson, Jake takes the rap when Didi sends offensive lineman Nelson Jaworski (Mr. Wilson) to the hospital by hammering him over the head with a champagne bottle. Fortunately Jake's ultimate fate is not nearly as dire as Gatsby's. Korman's book is a fun tribute to the original and might make a nice paired read with Fitzgerald's 1925 classic, a command of which is not necessary to enjoy this book. Korman succeeds in making the reader believe that a teenage boy could reinvent his identity and start a new life in a different school, an opportunity for which many people have wished. VOYA Codes 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broadgeneral YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Hyperion, 213p., Ages 12 to 18.—James Blasingame