Clara Wilson has a crooked nose. It bothers her. She fusses with it in the mirror. She thinks about plastic surgery. She touches it all of the time. Her nose doesn't bother Amos Mackenzie. He thinks she is pretty. And he will tell her so, in due time.
Crooked is the story of how Clara and Amos, both ninth-graders, get together, but it is so much more than that. During the time Clara and Amos make their way slowly toward each other, both are learning how to deal with adult problems. First, Clara's best friend dumps her, stops returning her phone calls, and starts bad-mouthing her around school. Then Clara's mother leaves home, and her father begins to date. On top of all of that, home alone one night, she narrowly escapes a dangerous situation when the thuggish brother of a friend she trusts tries to assault her. Things aren't much better for Amos. He gets in a bad accident because he tries to stop the neighborhood bullies (the very same thugs) from damaging property, which immediately makes him a school hero and, in turn, immediately teaches him the perils of popularity. The bullies continue to mess with him, paralyzing him with fear and eventually forcing him to learn how to stand up for himself. On top of all of that, Amos unexpectedly loses a parent.
It may sound melodramatic, but Crooked doesn't read that way. It reads beautifully and quickly. These are far from ordinary teenagers, and Crooked is far from an ordinary teen love story. Absent are all of the usual Beverly Hills 90210 cliches. Sure, there are the occasional popular rich girls with their nice sweaters and parentless mansions, but instead of being cool, these girls are portrayed in an unflattering light. One "hot" girl vomits fruity brandy all over her carpet and just expects the maid to clean it up. She isn't cool; she is pathetic. And Amos thinks so, too. Jocks, often portrayed as harsh frat-boy types in teen books, become Amos's mentors, helping him through bad times, offering advice and even shelter.
There are no typical obsessive teen talks about sports or trips to the mall in Crooked. Instead, there is an unusual element of reality. Both Clara and Amos come from families with money problems: Amos's mother is a waitress, his father delivers milk. Clara's family has trouble making ends meet. On top of her daily paper route, Clara starts her own business -- shoveling driveways and fetching groceries for an elderly neighborhood woman -- to make enough money to send herself to horse camp. But authors Laura and Tom McNeal don't allow money or death or anything else to make Amos or Clara bitter. Their problems don't take over their lives. They still manage long phone conversations, letters, notes in lockers, hand-holding, kisses. All of that good first-love stuff. There are misunderstandings and times when it looks like it won't work out between the two. Then Amos introduces Clara to his carrier pigeons, and Clara introduces Amos to her dog.
Amos and Clara are two complex, interesting young adults taking on whatever life has to offer and fighting back. And they still manage to fall for each other. How refreshing.
—Alexandra Zissu
Clara Wilson's normal life is changing: her best friend dumps her for a more popular group, and her parents' marriage is clearly in trouble. Then one day, her mother walks out on her department-store job and doesn't return home, leaving Clara and her father to fend for themselves. Across town, Amos Mackenzie, who's in ninth grade with Clara, also finds his comfortably familiar life changing around him. His father makes frequent visits to the doctor for an undisclosed illness, and his mother has suddenly become religious. When Amos inadvertently interrupts bad boys Charles and Eddie Tripp in an act of vandalism, he wins a gash in the head from the brutal Charles and becomes an overnight hero. Amidst the swirl of events, a mutual crush between Amos and Clara begins to grow, despite perpetual hindrances such as Amos's newfound popularity; his old friend Bruce, master of the prank phone call; and competition for Clara's affections by none other than Eddie Tripp. Clara is both scared and excited by the dangerously charming Eddie, who seems not-quite-so threatening as his older brother Charles. But the danger proves all too real in a terrifying climax that reveals everyone's true nature. Set during the dark winter days in a small town, Crooked explores both commonly accepted cruelties and vicious criminality, yet the tangibl yearning and imprefect goodness of both protagonists prevents the novel itself from succumbing to darkness. The crooked slope of Clar's nose---"the thing [she] worried most about....before everything stopped being normal"---dwindles in significance as both she and Amos bravely face their fears and stand up for themselves. The strands of their stories are cleverly intertwined in this well-plotted and engaging novel.
Gr 6-10-In this fine first novel set in upstate New York, two ordinary teens navigate the complicated, sometimes scary world they inhabit. Clara Wilson, 14, has a crooked nose, a best friend who deserts her, and parents who argue all the time. When her mother accepts a teaching job in Spain, Clara feels abandoned and resentful. Fellow ninth-grader Amos MacKenzie has parents who embarrass him, and keep secrets from him. He enjoys a newfound popularity after being attacked by the town bad boys, Charles and Eddie Tripp, but is lost and confused when his father unexpectedly dies following exploratory surgery. His budding relationship with Clara is his only consolation. When the Tripp brothers vow revenge on Amos for reporting them to the police, he and Clara face intimidation, which draws them even closer together. In a dramatic climax, the Tripps break into her house and corner her in the attic. The McNeals' recognition of the angst of junior high with its fickle friendships, bullies, and first love make their novel one that mirrors real life. The characters' actions and reactions ring true as they try to cope with all of the changes that life has dealt them and still maintain a grasp on who they are. For most of the novel, the story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the two main characters, but in the climactic final chapters, their voices become blended. Readers will come away knowing that even though their paths have taken some unexpected twists and turns, these young people are on a straight and sure course.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
