Out of Order

Publishers Weekly

There is redemption and growth at the end of Jenkins's (Damage; Breaking Boxes) brittle high school tale-but whether readers will want to spend a couple hundred pages with the loutish narrator is another matter. Sophomore Colt Trammel cares for only two things: baseball, at which he excels, and Grace, the girl he has always loved. To his teachers and most of his classmates (and probably readers as well), Colt is a stereotypical dumb jock ("One of the few things I've always liked about school is how everybody knows where they fit.... I belong at the top, and everybody knows it"); he, like nearly all the other characters, is recognizable more from teen films than from real life. When his mother threatens to keep him from playing baseball unless he brings up his grades, he turns for help to green-haired new girl Corinne, a dowdy outcast who loves poetry and shops at thrift stores (this would be the Molly Ringwald/Oddball Girl Who Is Really Adorable Once You Get to Know Her archetype). It is Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias" that effects the easily anticipated change in Colt, prompting him to wonder what people will remember about him when he is gone. The book's last few pages are poignant-including a poem by Corinne that casts Colt in a more favorable light-but it is likely a case of too little, too late. Ages 14-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2003: Colt, a sophomore, hates high school—except for baseball and his girlfriend, Grace. Schoolwork has always been a struggle for him, and Colt has been cheating his way through it to keep his grades high enough to be permitted to play ball, hiding what may be a learning disability. Meanwhile, even he knows that he and intellectual, humorless Grace are ill matched; when he blurts out that he loves her, he's left "feeling barefoot surrounded by broken glass." When she finally breaks up with him, he realizes that "I gave my heart away to somebody who never wanted it." Salvation lays in Colt's unlikely but growing friendship with a new classmate, a forthright girl with green hair who sees through his tough-guy fatade and tutors him in English. In the end Colt acquires a different attitude toward learning, hard as it is for him. Despite the baseball on the cover, this isn't a sports story, but rather a tale about learning to know oneself and to relate to others. Jenkins, the author of Damage and Breaking Boxes, writes convincingly and movingly about teenage boys in pain, struggling with their fears. Colt relates the story of these six pivotal weeks in his life, and his voice is often anguished and always credible, sprinkled with profanities as he battles toward hard-won realizations (there's also a bit of sex and rather more talk about it). There's humor as well as heartbreak, and Colt's confiding, honest tone and his plight will keep readers turning the pages. (An ALA Best Book for YAs.) KLIATT Codes: S*—Exceptional book, recommended for senior high school students. 2003, HarperTempest, 247p., Ages 15 to18.
—Paula Rohrlick

VOYA

Colt Trammel is stuck on Grace, the girlfriend for whom he has been saving himself, except that when he says "I love you," she gets mad. Always needing to think with Grace-how to react, what to say-Colt is endlessly challenged. Not understanding half of what high-achiever Grace says and not wanting her to realize what a moron he is, Colt struggles to be gentlemanly, believing that she will eventually succumb to physical attraction. Although he despises school for its difficult classes, he likes the orderly social hierarchy-where everyone's place is clear and he is Someone as the only sophomore on the high school varsity baseball team. Colt's mother decrees his academic record must improve if he is to play baseball, suggesting a tutor and offering the services of his eighth-grade sister. Humiliated and desperate, Colt analyzes his dilemma, realizes that all he needs is to master English essay tests, and asks Corrine, his biology lab partner who is in Accelerated English, for help. She, the green-haired individualist with a college boyfriend, simply suggests that he study. Upon hearing Colt's claim that he must understand the material himself, Corrine dishes the dirt on the romantic poets-enabling him to remember them. The plainspoken first-person narrator is disarmingly honest; with coarse language he relates his numerous struggles and rocky love relationship in a most endearing manner. Parents, teachers, and librarians take note: This novel will engage reluctant readers, and it has gems of Colt's wisdom on nearly every page. PLB
— Cynthia Winfield

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-In his sophomore year at his Texas high school, Colt Trammel feels that he's reached the top. After all, he's a baseball star and a leading jock, and he's part of the school's elite social group. Not that there aren't problems: Colt hates school (thanks largely to an undiagnosed learning disability), and his grades are so bad that his sports eligibility is in danger. Added to the mix are problems with his beautiful and brainy girlfriend, who stays rather prim during their makeout sessions. When a girl with green hair transfers to his high school, Colt is disconcerted by the fact that he finds her interesting when the school social code dictates that he should ignore her. Corrine ends up tutoring Colt in English and by the end of the novel they've formed an unlikely friendship. She manages to see that Colt is a good guy underneath his aggressive surface, and he comes to respect her independent spirit. The best part of this novel is the portrait of Colt. Every part rings true, from his rough language and obsession with sex to his need to act cool at all costs. It's also a very funny portrait, without ever lapsing into stereotypes or becoming too broad. Readers looking for a dead-on look at high school will enjoy this novel.-Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Colt Trammel swaggers through his sophomore year shoving a huge rebellious streak in his teachers' faces. His cockiness manifests Colt's way of coping with his own weaknesses as a person. Colt knows he's good-looking, a terrific baseball player, a member of the "in" crowd, but mostly, he's sure he's stupid. Actually Colt possesses more basic humanity than many of the older students he admires, but he makes some poor choices before realizing that he has some worth outside of baseball. Written in often profane but believable first-person, Colt defies his teachers as he fails in school, romance, and in his relationships with his friends. Only when he begins to accept two girls he has previously rejected does he begin to realize some of his potential. Jenkins's insight into Colt's adolescent thinking and into the common problems with which he copes will appeal to many young readers. (Fiction. YA)

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“A compelling story.”

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“This novel will engage reluctant readers and it has gems of Colt’s wisdom on nearly every page.”

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

“A compelling story.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"A compelling story."