KISSING THE RAIN
Kevin Brooks
The Chicken House/Scholastic
Fiction
ISBN: 043957742X
336 pages

• Read an Excerpt

"YOU, I mean. You ain't YOU no more --- you're just THE FAT KID. FAT FAT FAT --- that's ALL you are. You're gone to the RAIN forever … Get it? Gone."

At first Moo Nelson thinks the kids are just joking around. He had grown fat, but was he really THAT fat? He begins to understand that it's no joke --- they really are making fun of him. The badgering never seems to stop, but he can live through it because it's just like rain --- it falls on him and then he escapes to a dry location. The bridge is his secret thinking place where he can sort through things and leave the rain behind. At least that's what he thinks until the day everything in his life changes.

Moo, on the bridge one evening, is the unexpected witness to a murder. At first it's a little like being a celebrity --- everyone is interested in talking to him, finding out what it was like and what happened. Then there are the twists and turns. The police want him to slant his story so they can prosecute Kurt Vine, a known career criminal. But Vine and his lawyers have ways of making sure that Moo cooperates with them.

The bribes and threats are pushing him into a very awkward situation. Moo's family is at risk, his friend Brady is beaten and Moo finds himself in a frightening dilemma: should he risk telling the truth, or should he find another way out? What can he do?

As the tensions mount, this grueling situation tears at Moo's sense of right and wrong. He finally makes a decision that is indeed life altering and somewhat surprising. But for Moo, who has sought no adult counsel, this risky course seems to be his best alternative.

Kevin Brooks again manages to surprise his readers with this wrenching story of a young man in desperate straits and living on the edge. Fans of LUCAS and MARTYN PIG are sure to love this riveting novel.

   --- Reviewed by Sally M. Tibbetts (stibbetts@maine207west.k12.il.us)

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