St. Michael's scales

Publishers Weekly

Connelly's sophisticated first novel follows a teen consumed by guilt for the death of his twin, who died as an infant. Keegan plans to die the day before turning 16. He believes this will allow his twin, Michael, to return and repair their dysfunctional family. Set mostly in his "falling apart" Catholic high school with its "Wrong-Hearted Jesus" (a life-size statue of Jesus with his heart in the wrong place) and strange basement gym, Keegan's journey gets more complicated when he begins blaming himself for not helping his institutionalized mother. As penance, he joins the wrestling team, where he finds community, especially with Nicky Carpelli, who starves himself to wrestle at 105 pounds. Keegan worries that if he follows through with his plan to kill himself, he won't get to heaven, especially since he has no good deeds to put on the scale St. Michael will use to weigh his soul. Wrestling provides a good parallel both the weighing-in ritual and the inherent struggle. Keegan's memories of his family shoveling snow together or a lonely scene at home with his unavailable father and takeout pizza shed light on the depth of pain the boy and his family have internalized. While Keegan's ever-morphing delusions may be challenging to follow at times, the Catholic iconography and childhood flashbacks he intertwines with his narration, plus the surreal events, characters and setting, will likely draw readers into his world. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

For a small person, Keegan Carpelli carries a lot of weight on his shoulders. He blames himself for his mother's crackup; for the suicide of a fellow student at Our Lady of Perpetual Help high school; and especially for the death, at their birth, of his twin brother, Michael. In fact, Keegan is convinced that his departed brother wants him dead by his sixteenth birthday, which is only two weeks away. Meanwhile, Keegan is recruited to fill the slot for the 98-pounder on the school wrestling team. As Keegan counts down the days until his death, he reflects on his chaotic family life, which has degenerated ever since his mother was committed to a mental hospital. Keegan's sense of hopelessness is strikingly portrayed, though his constant complaining is sometimes irksome to the reader. The wrestling matches are adroitly and realistically depicted in this story of redemption and self-forgiveness. 2002, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic Press, $16.95. Ages 12 up. Reviewer: Christopher Moning

KLIATT

Keegan has suffered under the weight of guilt all his 15 years, blaming himself for the death of his twin brother in infancy and his mother's incarceration in a mental institution. Alienated from his father and nearly friendless at his private Catholic school, he feels alone and despairing, like "some kind of zombie." In fact, he plans on committing suicide before his 16th birthday, coming up in just two weeks. Keegan's small size and slight build have always been a source of shame for him, but the school wrestling coach, desperate for "a warm body who can make ninety-eight to weigh in," sees Keegan's scrawniness as an asset and insists that he join the team. At first Keegan views the demanding, often agonizing sport as a penance, but gradually he learns to wrestle, even as he wrestles with his inner demons. Despite the pain and a harsh initiation by his teammates, he begins to feel part of the team (especially after a drunken evening with them) and starts to feel alive again. Keegan's dramatic anguish and the wrestling action here make this an engrossing first novel. Those with a Catholic background will probably best be able to relate to the religious guilt and references, but this is a story that can be appreciated by many readers. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, Scholastic, Arthur A. Levine, 320p., $16.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Paula Rohrlick; KLIATT SOURCE: KLIATT, March 2002 (Vol. 36, No. 2)

VOYA

Keegan Flannery is getting ready to die for salvation. He survived a difficult birth that took the life of his twin, Michael, and believes that he is responsible for his brother's death. He has internalized his mother's subsequent breakdown and years in a mental hospital as a direct result of his not being Michael, who surely would have become everything that Keegan is not. Keegan decides that Michael wants him to die on his sixteenth birthday. This penitent act will right all the wrongs he has caused. The two-week period between Keegan's decision and his birthday are filled with discoveries, as he becomes a part of the school's wrestling team, giving him his first sense of belonging since his mother's collapse. Keegan also witnesses the desperation and hopelessness of a final, tragic act. The events of his last two weeks of longing for absolution lead Keegan to a realization of his place in the world and his own importance. This novel covers the same issues of guilt and grief that are dealt with in Joyce McDonald's Swallowing Stones (Bantam, 1997/VOYA December 1997), but centers around a boy who has lacked love and the assurance of his own worth. It will appeal to teens of either gender who have questioned their sense of belonging. VOYA CODES: 4Q 3P S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Will appeal with pushing; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2001, Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 320p,
— Betsy Fraser

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Keegan, 15, is besieged by problems. His mother is in a mental institution, his older brother ran away years ago, and his father is caught up in his own problems and barely notices his son's existence. The teen's frail health and small size make him the object of ridicule at school, and he is haunted by the "ghost" of his twin brother, Michael, who died at birth. Steeped in stories of saints and martyrs at his Catholic school, Keegan decides that he will stop the pain and join his twin by burning down the school and killing himself on the day before his 16th birthday because Michael wants him to. As he goes about making his plans, the wrestling coach almost commands him to fill in for a sick wrestler. Despite the initial bullying and hazing by team members, he becomes part of the group and finds a sense of belonging that had previously eluded him. He also finds that wrestling and the trauma of witnessing another school outcast commit suicide bring him and his dad much closer and they are finally able to talk about the guilt they both feel over the tragedies in their lives. Connelly's complex coming-of-age novel delves deeply into the human psyche and the soul as Keegan realizes that acceptance, not penance, is the answer to facing life. The characters, although often extreme examples of a type, are believable and likable. This is a dark story but one that is ultimately hopeful.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Patron saint of the sick and patron saint of battle, St. Michael stands at the gate to Heaven, judging people's lives and weighing the worth of their souls. "Lately I've been thinking about those scales," says 15-year-old Keegan Flannery, and he concludes, "I had nothing-my side of the scales was all but empty." He feels his life is empty, he has done nothing of worth for family or friends. Keegan's twin brother Michael died at birth, and ever since, Keegan has felt responsible and guilty for the death and for the family dissolution carried in its wake. To atone, he is planning a suicide when he turns 16, a desperate attempt at forgiveness, absolution, and salvation. This debut novelist succeeds brilliantly at putting readers in to the disturbed and tortured mind of its lonely protagonist. They will experience kaleidoscopic mental images of Heaven and Hell, birth and death, gargoyles, angels, saints, and Frankenstein as Keegan tries to make a life-and death-for himself. Wrestling for Our Lady of Perpetual Help High School becomes his means of doing penance through pain. The title of the novel is a clever play on St. Michael's scales and the scales in the locker room, representing Keegan's desire to measure up for patron saint and coach. In a beautifully wrought final wrestling scene-an image of resurrection-Keegan realizes he has found himself, his place, his voice. He realizes he wasn't so much seeking a way to die but a way to live, and that his prayers might better have been for guidance than for death or release. Keegan has found his own voice for his side of St. Michael's scales. A richly layered, thought-provoking novel of how one boy learns to make weight. (Fiction. 14+)